


From Dusk

by Fecyrineu



Category: Persona 3, Persona Series, Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fusion, Blank Slate Protagonist, Crossover, Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, Dark Hour (Persona 3), Fluff and Angst, Gem Protagonist, Might include P4 and P5 stuff later, Original Character(s), Originally a Quest, POV First Person, POV Original Character, Present Tense, Swearing, only occasionally though
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-19
Updated: 2021-03-19
Packaged: 2021-03-27 20:40:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 37,207
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30128514
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fecyrineu/pseuds/Fecyrineu
Summary: A new soul must find her path in a confusing and exciting world.
Kudos: 3





	1. Awakening

**Author's Note:**

> This story is an interactive quest that is being posted on both Spacebattles and Sufficient Velocity whose chapters I am also posting here for anyone to read. If you wish to partake in the quest as well then follow one of these two links:
> 
> https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/from-dusk-redux-persona-steven-universe.907283/  
> https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/threads/from-dusk-redux-persona-steven-universe.84464/
> 
> I recommend reading the story there if you want to have a look into the quest elements of it.
> 
> As always, criticism is appreciated. I need it in order to realize where I could do better so don't hesitate to tell me what you think.

One moment I wasn't, then I was.

I was encapsulated by complete darkness. Trying to move my body resulted in nothing. Trying again only resulted in the same outcome, yet I kept trying because you had to. I was a part of something bigger, greater, but now I am not. I can hear it's call, it was trying to call me back so we can finally reunite and be whole. It was not whole because I was missing, so I had to keep trying, keep pushing, and pushing, and pushing and-

I fell and hit the ground headfirst. It tasted like concrete and metal, and it was also very much not a soft thing to hit with my face. It didn't hurt that much but it was certainly not comfortable.

Getting myself up, I realize that I was still covered in absolute darkness, although my body was no longer constricted like before. I had to go somewhere and do... something so I couldn't stay here in this place forever. I pick a direction and start walking only to stumble upon something and hit my face on the ground, again.

Screw darkness! It certainly seems to be my biggest opponent so far, more so than the thing that keept you from moving because at least you could escape that. But darkness, you can't just will it away.

From somewhere a soft cyan light starts emanating the sealed concrete floor my face rests in. It is the first thing I have ever saw, a relief from my torment of colorlessness. I had to see whatever it was that was shining literal light into your life, so I use my arms to push myself up again but stop when I look at them. It seems that the light was coming from me! Getting up, I start trying to check everything about myself.

My skin was cyan, perfect and without blemishes. Using my hands, I grab my hair and brought it to somewhere I could see. It was white, yet despite that it still seemed to glow that same soft cyan light that my skin was glowing. It was also slightly curvy and could reach into my shoulders. The only piece of clothing I am wearing is a dark blue jumpsuit, completely plain. Embedded in my chest was a strange rock that went through the surface of the skin, leaving only one side of it visible. Touching it sent shivers through my entire body, causing the light to flicker.

It seems I can just will the darkness away, afterall.

Finally being able to see my surrounds I realize that the waist-high object I stumbled upon was a chair, now knocked over on the dusty floor. Near it was a dusty metal desk with a large computer on top. It was connected to thick black cables, one leading to the wall and the others leading to various other devices across the room, most of which looked complicated and weird. One of them was a big drill in the corner, the other was a disk thing pointed at a... hole in the wall shaped like a person? Wait, is that where I came from?

Walking up to it I realize that my body could fit the hole perfectly. Did I just push yourself through concrete this thick? Why was I in the wall in the first place? I was not supposed to be in a wall, I was supposed to be... somewhere else, but not here!

Turning around to look at the room again, I realized there is a closed metal door and a window leading to another dark room, or at least I assumed it's a window. It, like everything else here, was covered in dust, making it difficult to see the other side. They should clean this place, whoever they are.

I walked towards the door and try to open it but it doesn't budge. I was stuck in this dark, dusty room.

Moving towards the window, I try to see through it but can't. To make it easier, I swipe my hands through the glass, creating a hole in the layer of dust where my cyan light could go through. In the other side of the window there are more computers, positioned so that whotever was using them could also look through the glass. There are chairs, file cabinets, drawing boards, rotting books and in a frame in the wall there is a picture of a group of smilling people in white coats. More importantly though, it seems that towards the side of the room, nearly out my line of sight, is an open door with a soft green light shinning through.

Did the door on the other side of the window lead to a way out of here? And what is that green light? It is the second ever source of light I have ever seen and I felt that I need, as a fellow light source, to find out more about it.

There didn't seem to be any way out of this room. That will not do.

I wanted to see the other light and get out of this room, but this window stood in the way.

I look back, towards the knocked over chair and towards the you-shaped hole in the wall. I have come so far to give up now. The lessons I learned along the way, how to push really hard, how to make light, they will help me overcome this obstacle. This cannot be the end of my journey, I will not allow it! I look at the window, taunting me with promises of more that you cannot reach. Well, it's taunt will be over! If I can break through concrete then surely I can break through glass!

I step back, trying to think how to destroy the foe in front of me. That's when an idea comes to my mind. I smile, knowing that the window's days are over. My left leg goes back a little in order to give you the momentum it needs. I close my fists and move my left arm into position.

I put your plan into motion.

My left leg pushes me foward and meanwhile I swing my left arm with all my might. The great momentum my fist has and the durability to cut through concrete never left any questions on who would be the winner. A resounding crack sounds as the minutes of my captiviy are over. The sight of glass shards, reflecting my cyan light, flying all over the next room was beautiful.

But there seemed to be a flaw in my plan. My left leg was pushing me foward, the right one I was using to stand, my left arm was busy being glorious and I didn't think my right arm would have been needed. There was nothing that could stop my momentum! My lower body crashes into the wall causing my upper body's movement to be suddently redirected towards the computer desks standing behind the no-longer-existing window. I fall over a mess of computer screens and cables, knocking them over to the floor. I can hear the sound of crashes as they fall.

Soon, the sounds stop and I find myself lying on top of a metal desk, surround by glass shards, cables, dust and the few computer screens that survived your rampage.

"Hehe, hah ha!" Destruction is fun!

Getting off the desk that I trashed, I put my feet on the floor of this brave new room. The glass shards feel uncomfortable on my bare feet but they don't hurt. From a new position I could better see the everything in the mysterious room. There is a clock on the wall above the window you vanquished, both clock-hands pointed at XII.

As much as I want to destroy more things, I suppose I should try to find out more about how exactly I ended up in a wall. I go towards one of the surviving computer screens in order to inspect it. It was boxy and beige, the screen displayed nothing but the fuzzy cyan reflection of me. I press the big button to power it up but nothing happens. Now, I am no electronic expert but from my knowledge of electronics that I learned from... Well, I don't know where, but I do know that computers screens need an actual computer to function. Crouching under the desk, I see the computer case. You feel anticipation as you press the power button and... nothing happens.

With the lights turned off and the computers not working, maybe this place doesn't have electricity? No electricity, dust everywhere, this location seems very abandoned. Did whoever made this place forget that I was in the wall all this time?

I pick a keyboard and throw it at an wall. Destruction, yeah!

I decided that I have already spent way too much time in this place. So, I was in a wall and had no idea of how that happend, big deal. I will just move foward because I had a job to do. I did not knew what the job was, but that was just a small detail.

There were only two doors in the room I was in. One of them was the heavy locked metal door that lead you to rooms past, so the green light door must be the way out. I walk up to it and cross to the other side, only to be greeted by the visage of another window, except this one showed the outside world. There is a florest in a valley surrounded by mountains and the green night sky was filled with clouds. You could see a another building, somewhat near where you are. It had four floors and large windows, the lights were all turned off and a chainlink fence separated it from the surrounding woods. You also saw a big radar dish in the distance. Despite the woods that covered everything, it seemed that the area immediately surrounding where I was had no trees, grass or other vegetation.

I look around and notice I am in a hallway. The side of the hallway I came out of had many doors, but only your door and the door next to it were open. In the other side of the hallway there was multiple windows, one of them broken, and a single closed metal door that lead outside.

Curiosity led me to peek through the other opened door. It lead to a room similar to the one I just left. Inside there was yet another broken window, letting me see a hole in a wall. Except this hole wasn't you-shaped, it was more like blob-shaped.

I have never stopped to think about it until now, but what is this place? Where am I?

In order to better investigate the blob-shaped hole, I jump through the broken window (who needs doors anyway?) and then enter it.

This hole is very weird, as wall holes tend to go. Whatever made had no sense of style. It's not shaped like a person or anything interesting, it's just a blobby lump of a hole. I notice that while the hole goes through the concrete wall, the end of it seems to contain some type of rock, as if whatever carved out this hole started doing so in border between rock and concrete. The hole is kinda lukewarm compared to everything else that was a little bit cold. Also, temperature is a thing that exists! Isn't that cool? I think it's cool, especially since it's the first time I ever thought about it.

But as much as I want to spend time inside the lukewarm blob-shaped hole contemplating my discovery, I reason it's best for me to leave. I don't think I would want to find someone in my hole so maybe staying in other people's holes is a bad idea. Wait, other people? Was this hole made by someone like me? Maybe they are the ones that broke these other windows. I wonder what they're like. Do they glow cyan like me?

With these questions in mind I go back to the hallway. Standing in front of one of the unbroken windows, I prepare my most powerful technique, with a small adjustment. I put your plan into action, except this time I don't launch yourself fowards. My left fist collides with the glass and shatters it, a loud crack sounding through the valley. Both of my feet are very much connected to the ground.

Success! I am in my way to becoming an expert window-puncher!

I walk outside for the first time and feel the texture of dirt on my feet. I look back and see that the building I was in was actually inside of a cliff. Only the walls and windows of the hallway were visible from the outside. The cliff was made of dirt and rocks and there was no trees or grass on it, as if they were avoiding it.

Looking up I can finally see the full sky. It's very cloudy and green. And the moon! It's your first time seeing the moon, it is so very big and greenish yellow! Or is it yellowish green? Either way, it looks cool. It almost looks like it is...

It is...

...

I shake my head and stop looking at the sky. I didn't have time to stargaze, I have things to do and places to be! So I start looking for what do to next.

Amongst the vegetation there is a dirt road and a sign. It's in japonese and it reads "Empirical Ergofosgeological Research Laboratory". It's meaning is lost on me.

Well, there is only one path fowards! Actually that's not true since you can roam into any direction, but walking through the dirt road seems like a sensible decision.

Soon the open clearing surrounding the cliff was replace by a florest. The trees here were very large, and big. I don't think I would be able to hug them even if I streched my arms wide.

I never hugged anything before, did I? I run towards one of the trees and try to hug it. The rough texture of the tree barks touch my arms. I really was right in the fact I wouldn't be able to hug it, in fact my arms don't even seem to be able to reach the halfway point. This tree seems to be some sort of cedar tree, maybe. It looked different from what I would expect from a cedar tree to be though, not that I have ever seen one before.

Leaving the tree behind me I continue my treek trough the woods when I start to hear a sound in the distance. It starts faint but grows louder the longer I walk. I have a vague sense of familiarity towards it but for the life of me I can't seem to think of what it is.

This is the longest I have ever walked. My own cyan light combined with the moon's green light make the path visible yet it's still pretty dark, especially here in this road. The treetops block most of the moonlight and the trees that are not close to me just seem like black outlines. Yet it's also calming, just walking without having to punch things or go into weird rooms.

I stop when you reach a point in the road blocked by a fallen tree. It's the same big kind of tree you saw before but this one seemed to have been slashed at the base. Jumping over it is not hard at all. With that out of the way I continue to wander.

Soon I find myself at a crossroads. From what I remember, one path would lead into the direction of the other building I saw before while the second path leads towards the pleasant I have been hearing. I start walking towards the sound because that's what I want. It's mysterious allure has entranced me to follow it.

Following the path I eventually stumble upon a big concrete wall with a large metal gate which, judging by it's color, is very rusted. Thankfully, the gate seems to be open slightly. I imagine that crossing to the other side would be a big inconvenience if it wasn't. Still, the opening is small so I will have to squeeze through. I can feel your body shiver as pressure is applied to the weird rock in my chest, but soon it stops when I finally reach the other side.

There's a sign in japonese that reads "Private Property: Stay Out". Well, if they wanted people to stay out then maybe they shouldn't put people inside walls!

Soon, the big cedar trees are slowly being replaced by palm trees and the ground become less and less firm until finally I reach my destination.

The trees give away to sand as I find yourself staring down a beach. I look from one side to another, seeing the red ocean waves gently clash agaist the sand. There are large rocks scattered here and there. In the horizon the green night sky meets the red ocean. It's quite the sight.

I also noticed that, near one of the large rocks that seem to dot this beach, there is a small wooden pier. At the end of it is a weird upright structure, it can't be that much bigger than me.

I decide to check the upright structure. Besides the beautiful scenery, it was the most attention drawing thing here.

I walk towards it, stepping on the beach for the first time. I can feel the grains of sand moving between the fingers of my feet. Soon it ended as I start walking over the wooden planks of the pier, the wood creaking as I step on it.

Finally I reach the weird upright structure. It was an black box the shape of an irregular hexagon amd it seems as though I could fit inside it standing. In fact, it reminds me of a coffin. Though, does it really remind me of a coffin considering I never heard or thought of a coffin before this? Is it really remembering when it's something I have never experienced before? And why is it there an upright coffin on a pier in an empty beach? For the same reason I was in a wall before I suppose, or how I can glow, or have cyan skin. I was tooo busy with other stuff at the time but now that I think about it I am pretty sure that skin color is supposed to be dark, or light beige, or something in between or some other colors too but not cyan. Who has cyan skin? Me, apparently. And that's not even going on that weird rock in my chest or how I can just push my way-

Suddenly everything changes. In one moment everything was as it used to be, the next the ocean was no longer red but a very dark blue, the sky no longer shined green as darkness overtook most of it with exception of a few small points of light scattered through, the moon was white and smaller. It was so alien and weird. You don't know much, you've only existed for just a short while, but an ocean that was not red, a sky that was not green? It was wrong, very wrong! What happend to the world!?

The coffin disappeared and was istead replaced by a young man looking at the ocean, his back turned to me. Something made him turn around and look at me.

"JESUS FREAKING CHRIST!" he screamed and jumped back, raising his arms in a defensive position.

"Why were you a coffin?!" I had to know! What was going on? What happend to everything?!

"I, you- what?!" the man shouted back. He was a slight chubby tall asian young man, had short curly black hair and brown eyes. He was wearing glasses, a gray jacket, jeans and sneakers. And, most importantly, he was not answering my question!

"I said, why were you a coffin? What happend to the the world?!" I asked while pointing my finger at him then using my arms to gesture at everything.

The man still didn't answer me, istead he just stared at you with an open mouth and eyes wide open, not doing anything.

"Answer me!"

"I-I don't know! What are you?!" he had the gall to say.

"What do you mean you don't know? Everything was fine and you were a coffin but now you're not and the world is wrong!" I exclaim. His eyes seem to get even wider as I said that.

"I was just out for a scroll, please don't kill me!" he said as he covers his face with his arms and starts walking backwards towards the end of the pier, until he falls off it. You can hear a splash as his body hits the water.

I didn't expect coffin-man to just jump into the water!

"Oh no, you don't!" I shout as I get a running start and then jump into the ocean.

The water submerges me although it's not that deep since I can still feel my feet touching the sand. I await for my body's buoyancy to bring you back to the surface except that didn't happen. I jump. My body is able to completely escape the surface of the water, allowing me to briefly see coffin-man trying to swim away-

"Gaahhhh!"

before gravity pulls me back to beneath the surface. A vague idea of the movements you need to make in order to swim comes to my mind so I try them out, but when I do I just sink to the floor no matter how much I paddle.

Getting tired of waving my arms and legs while lying down on the sand I just decide to run underwater towards the rude man who didn't answer your questions. His swimming is slow compared to your underwater running and it didn't take long for me to be upon him. I jump and manage to grab onto one of his arms. He tries to free himself, struggling as much as he can and even punching me a few times, but it barely does anything. I drag him to the shore despite his non-verbal protests until finally reaching terra firma. Coffin-man gets on his knees and starts coughing and breathing heavily until eventually stops.

"You didn't answer my question!" I remind him.

The man has a hysterical giggle as he hears me. "Are you going to kill me?"

"What? No! I just want you to answer me. Is it that hard?" Really, it's not that complicated a question!

He just looks at me. You notice he no longer has his glasses.

"Why were you a coffin?!" I ask, hopefully for the last time.

"I... have no idea what you're talking about." He answered. How annoying!

"You. Were. A. Coffin. How did that happen?"

"I... wasn't a coffin? What does that even mean?"

"I come here to this beach, to that pier-" I point at it "and you were a coffin. Then suddently everything gets wrong and you were no longer a coffin. How did you do that?"

"I didn't do that. How would I even do that?" he starts giggling hysterically again.

"Ugh! If you weren't a coffin, which you were, then what were you doing?" he was really pissing me off.

"I couldn't sleep, so I decided to take a scroll through the beach. I go to that pier when suddently you show up behind me out of nowhere and starts asking stuff about coffins! What even are you? Are you some sort of ghost?"

"I..." What am I? "It doesn't matter what I am! Fine, even if I believe that you have no recollection of being a coffin, what's going on in the world?!" I use your arms to point towards the ocean and the sky.

"Like, in general or-"

"The sky! And the ocean!"

He looks at the ocean and then at the sky. He doesn't say anything.

"What, are you going to tell me that the ocean being blue and the moon being white is normal?" I ask.

"...yes?"

"Gah!" I punch the sand and create a small crater in the ground. Coffin-man crawls back a bit, clearly scared.

I sit on the ground and hug your legs. My hair hides my face.

"I just want to know what's going on..." I am not crying. I have never cried before and I will not start now.

Who am I? Why am I here? Why is the world so wrong?

Some time pass like this, not that I was counting. Coffin-man might have been watching me but I don't care anymore. Everything is wrong and I don't know what is happening! I just want things to be right.

Why couldn't there be any computers and windows for me to break nearby? That would make me feel better.

"Hey." I look up to see coffin-man looking at you with a worried expression "I don't really understand what you're saying, but maybe you can try to explain to me? I'm sure we can find out what's going on together."

"You promise?" I ask.

"Well, I can't promise to find out what's going on but I can promise to try." he says, extending his hand towards me.

I stare at it for a few moments, unsure of what to do. Could I trust him? I do not know. But could I stay alone? Did I want to?

I take a deep breath and extend my hand to meet his.


	2. Companions

"Well, now that's settled I think I'm going back to my hotel room because I'm freezing." he says, clutching himself.

"Didn't you just say that you would help me?". So much for his promise.

"We can do that tomorrow. I don't think I can help you much if I freeze to death."

"I was in the ocean too and I'm not freezing." I didn't realized it before but it is rather chilly here, but nowhere near freezing. Was he trying to get rid of me so soon after making that promise?

"Well, it's freezing to me." he said.

He was shivering and holding himself. His clothes soaked unlike mine which were not being affected by the water. Maybe he was telling the truth

"My name is Souji Taki. What's yours?"

"My name..."

What is my name?

"My name is Plume of Dusk." It felt right.

"Plume of Dusk, huh?" He chuckled "I suppose I shouldn't have expected you to have a normal name."

I frowned. My name wasn't weird, was it?

"Sorry." he said sheepishly "So, I guess I see you tomorrow? Can we meet up here tomorrow at, I dunno, 7 a.m.?"

I look at your surroundings, so alien. "I don't want to wait here."

Once again coffin-man looks at you with a concerned face "Don't you have anywhere you can stay until then?"

"I guess I have my hole." It wouldn't be a bad idea to stay in my hole until the time to meet coffin-man, wouldn't it? Or maybe I could explore around some more until then, although with how weird the world was it wouldn't feel as calming as wandering the woods earlier.

"Uh, you can stay with me. My cousin and I are staying in a hotel not far from here."

That was an option. I have never been to a hotel before and-

"Okay, look! I know we are going to meet each other tomorrow regardless, but I have to know! What are you, really?"

"I don't know."

"You don't know? How much do you know?" he kept pressing.

"I... can I stay with you? You asked if I wanted to."

Souji seems taken back by my sudden shift in topic, but he doesn't say anything about it. "Okay, you can come with me. The hotel is that way, we just gotta walk down this beach for a little then we'll reach a small touristy town. That's where we're staying."

Both you and coffin-man start going towards the hotel. He is still shivering. It's not my fault he decided to jump into the sea istead of answering my questions. Both of us stay quiet during the trip, it's kinda awkward. Looking ahead I start seeing a few lights in the distance. Is that the town coffin talked about? Probably. I look at him again and noticed he was staring at you before he quickly looked away.

Should I tell him everything? He promised to help me find out about what is happening but I don't want to talk about it. And he was really rude earlier! Though, if he was telling the truth that he can't remember being a coffin, maybe that makes sense? It doesn't excuse him for being rude and not aswering your questions right away or forcing you to jump on that weird dark blue ocean, but maybe you could understand him, just a little bit. And if he promised to help me then he might not be so bad.

"Earlier, you asked if I was a ghost? Why did you say that?" I asked. Coffin stopped trying to avert looking at me and looked relieved that I broke the silence.

"Ah, it's because you look very etherial-like and stuff. You're glowing and I guess the white hair and the yellow eyes also made an impression." he said.

I have yellow eyes? I have never seem your face before so it might be possible. It didn't look like coffin was lying.

"Maybe I am a ghost born from people's minds and given a body, or something. I don't really know what I am." I say. It was just guess.

"If you don't know what you are, then where do you come from?" Souji asked.

"From a hole in the wall."

"A hole in the wall?" He seemed very intrigued by what I said.

So I told him about where you come from, the dark room in which I first experienced everything. I told him how you overcame darkness through sheer willpower and glowing cyan power as well. I told him how you became an expert in the fine arts of glass shattering through trial and error and how fun it was to break stuff. About how calming it felt to walk through the woods. And finally, how I met him. Through it Souji seemed to be physically holding himself from interrupting, but he stays quiet and waits for me to finish.

"... and then the world got weird and you stopped being a coffin." I finish.

Coffin just seems to stare at me for a moment before he finally starts talking. "So, wait, are you not a day old? You were just born? I knew that the Kirijo Group had test sites in this island some years ago but I always thought it was for like, electronics and jet engines or stuff like that! This is crazy! It seems something straight out of a movie, how can it be possible? And was I really a coffin? How did that happen? Is it some sort of weird supernatural event? Are the big corporations messing with the supernatural? It seems like the plot of a sci-fi flick, megacorporations messing with forces beyond human comprehension. This seems very shady, is the government in on it? How far does it go? This is huge! What if they cause the end of the world when messing with stuff like this? I mean, people becoming coffins doesn't scream 'safe energy source' to you, does it? Though I suppose ending the world for the sake of profit isn't something new, what with all the shady immoral stuff corporations did already, but this is on a whole other level! For real, this is really huge! You are-"

I can only stare as coffin starts vomiting words at me excitedly. At some point I lost his train of thought and stopped paying attention. Did he say something about a Kirijo Group? Were they the ones who put me in the wall?

I can't help but feel a little bit upset on how he started talking about all of this stuff and not made a single comment about how awesome it felt to break those windows or how amazing it was when you conquered the darkness away. I wanted him to tell me that what you I was cool. I know he promised me to help find out what's going on and he was trying to do just that, but it still bothers me...

At some point he stopped talking. The lights of the town he mentioned were really close now. I can see some buildings and a few piers up ahead. There were some boats docked on them, none of them were very big. A sign written "Bichibyu Town, Yakushima Island" on it was at the entrance of the town.

"Well, here we are. Do you think you can stop, uh, glowing? I don't think we want to draw attention, and it is pretty late." coffin asked of me.

Can I stop glowing? I never really tried. What if I am stuck glowing forever and- Oh, I stopped glowing. It was as easy as easy as that.

Coffin leads you to a wooden two-story building in the other end of the small town, farther away from the beach than most other buildings. As we passed through I noticed it was composed mostly of stores, most of them were closed now.

He searches for his pocket for a keychain that has two keys on it and then puts one of them in the keyhole inn the front door of the hotel and opens it. He then took out his sneakers and carried them in his hands. I was about to mimic him until I remembered I was barefoot this entire time.

The room inside had chairs, sofas and a reception desk, although it was empty. In one of the walls was a map of what you assume is Yakushima Island as well as a map of the Earth. Would have been very cozy if it wasn't for the lack of green lights shining through the windows.

"I'm on the second floor, room 4." he says and I follow him. I go up one of the wooden starts and go into a corridor where there were multiple doors. He uses one of the keys to open the door and you are inside. It's a small room with one bed, a nightstand and a closet. I could see some bags in the corner. There was a window and another door further in which I assume leads to the bathroom.

"My cousin is on the room next door, probably sleeping." he says while closing the door behind him. "Well, I'm going to take a shower. You can sleep on the bed if you want, I have a sleeping bag somewhere with my stuff anyway."

That bed did seems comfy.

Souji entered the bathroom and the shortly after the sound of the shower could be heard.

Thinking about it made me realize that you yourself don't really need to bathe. All the dust, dirt, sand just kinda of slided off me. I felt as clean as the moment I first left the hole. Still, I wonder how showering feels like. I have to try it sometime.

I notice that there is a light switch near the door, pressing it causes the light to turn off. No surprises there, but it does give ME an idea. With the light turned off i started glowing again. It's very easy to do, i just wish to glow and then it happens. But how much can i glow? All of this time MY level of glowiness stayed constant and i never thought of altering it beyond turning on and off. Time for that to change!

First I try to reduce your glow. I will it and it simply happens, my cyan light slowly and gradually reduces until there is nothing. Now for the opposite, I will my glow to become more potent. For some time it was just like reducing it, effortless. Eventually the room is as bright as if the light was turned on, except it has a cyan tint to it. I decide to keep going but then something happend. I started to actually feel some sort of exertion coming from my body. It wasn't much, moving my arm felt more tiresome, but it was there. I keep going, increasing the intensity of the glow until everything was very bright. The room now looked cyan and I was starting to feel tired for first time since ever. It was also starting to get hot so you turn off the glow. Destruction might be fun but you don't think coffin will appreciate me burning down his bags or something.

Once again surrounded by darkness, I still hear the shower. Souji isn't done yet.

I try turning my glow on and off in rapid succession, it was effortless. Then I tried turning on and off except this time it was to make things go from nothing to very bright istead of just my regular glow. Doing so was really tiring but also fun! The room was going from pitch black to very bright cyan and back very quickly. I try it even faster! Now I was turning the glow on and off multiple times a second. I can feel the exertion taking it's tool in my body but I could also feel something else. It was different than the feeling of tiredness or exertion, it didn't came from my body but rather it was coming from inside of me, weirdly enough.

I try to reach out for that strange different feeling. I move my left hand over the strange rock in my chest, trying to grasp for something. It glows a bright golden light except that light seems different. It was material, occupying space around me as if it was some vortex of flowing liquid. I close my fist and feel the energy flowing towards it.

"Kouha!" I say, it comes naturally. Then in one swift movement I throw it. The energy flies across the room and hits the window, shattering it loudly.

I hear a door opening and realize that Souji was already done showering. He looked at my extended arm and then at the broken window. Then he looks at me.

"What happened?!"

"I can explain!" I say quickly. "I was experimenting with the glowy thing, then I suddenly said 'Kouha', and threw the light on instinct!"

"Glowing thing? You mean your glowing powers? And how can you throw light?" he says, sounding worried. "You can control it, right? You're not going to 'throw light on instict' at me, right?"

"No, I think I can control it. It's just that I didn't knew I could do that." I tell him. I hope he can understand I didn't mean to do that, it just kinda happend! Who could have known that my mastery of the glass shaterring arts could extended to destruction through the physical manifestation of light?

He stared at the broken window, then put his hand on his face and sighed. "Don't worry. I can pay for that..."

An awkward silence reigned in the room after he said that. So in order to break it, I decided to show him what I have found! I start quickly turning my glow on and off, hoping it will make coffin feel better. It does grab his attention as he is now looking at me. Then, you start to cause my glow to flicker very quickly and at last I turn your glow very strongly and extend your arms out, ending my brilliant performance.

"I discovered I could do this while you were showering! Cool, right?" I ask.

Coffin stares at me for a few moments. I start getting kinda anxious that he won't say anything but eventually he does.

"Yeah, Plume. That's cool." he comments. I smile as he says that. It felt nice.

That's when both of your hear a knock on the door.

"Yo, Souji. What are the hell are doing there? I'm trying to sleep here!" I can hear a male voice say.

Coffin looks at me and then says "Stay here." He then goes to the door an open it slightly.

"Souji, what the hell was that sound? Did you break the window?" the other voice say.

"Well, it wasn't me who who broke it." coffin says.

"What do you mean it wasn't you?" the other voice says and then the door opens fully, revealing a caucasian man. He had brown short hair and a stubble beard. "What the hell?"

"John, I need to talk to you." coffin says.

"What is that? A glowing blue girl?" the man named John says.

"Like I said, we need to talk. This is big, John!"

"Uh, okay?"

"Also, me and Plume of Dusk here will be sleeping on your room. It's going to become cold here, what with the window broken." he says and the points at the window.

Coffin leads me to John's rooms. It's pretty similar to the room I was before. Coffin extends two sleeping bags on the floor next to the bed and then goes downstairs with John, presumably to talk about me.

After some time waiting in the room I decided to follow him. Coffin's cousin might want to hear what you have to say but you also have some questions of your own.

Going downstairs I see the cousins sitting on different armchairs, talking to one another already. I sit on the empty sofa.

"- and then she shows up behind me out of nowhere, asking how I was a coffin! I thought she was a ghost or something. I swear I could feel my heart jumping out of my chest." coffin was in the middle of talking when they both see me enter the room.

"Speaking of the Devil." John says. "Hello, my name is John Taki, but just call me John. What's your name?"

"Plume of Dusk." I reply.

"Nice name. Weird but unique, I like it. So, Souji here was telling me about you. Where do you come from, mysterious glowing blue lady?"

"From the wall." I reply.

"From the wall?" John says.

Souji replies John's question for you. "She told me she came from abandoned lab in the woods further inland. Apparently, she was a byproduct of some sort of research into the supernatural."

"Really? Is it a Kirijo Group lab?" John asks.

"I mean, who else would it be? The Kirijo Group had a few test sites on the island but they abandoned it some years ago. I still can't believe they were actually messing with supernatural stuff."

"What is the Kirijo Group?" I interrupt them and ask.

"They're a company." Souji replies. "A big one, one of the biggest in Japan. Cars, eletronics, they do a little bit of everything. My father used to work for them but he died a few weeks ago. It's actually why we're here, I was seeing inheritance stuff and John decided to tag along."

"I knew how to drive a boat and he didn't. Besides, I didn't want to pass the opportunity to go to a place like this." John says.

"My parents divorced when I was young and I moved with my mother to Tokyo. I never knew him that well but I was told he was a robotics engineer. Maybe that was a lie? Some cover up to hide what he did at the Kirijo test sites here?" Souji tells me.

Things stay quiet after that, so I decide to ask John a question. “Were you a coffin as well? Were your parents and grandparents coffins as well or what?”

"Souji did tell me that you asked him that. What do you mean?" John asks.

You can't help but sigh. "When I came to the beach, Souji was a coffin, then the world got wrong and he no longer was one."

"Huh. Unless my parents are hiding something from me, I don't think I have a family history of being a coffin. Also, me and Souji are not related by blood. My stepfather is his mother's brother." he replies.

"I think whatever this coffin stuff is, it has to be related to whatever the Kirijo Group was researching. Supernatural stuff, real supernatural stuff! I'm thinking of going there tomorrow morning, I can barely wait! Plume, can you show me where you came from?"

"Sure, I can show you." The thought is embarrassing. I hope he doesn't judge the hole I made.

The rest of the night was pleasant. Souji and John did most of the talking but it was interesting to hear them talk.

Souji started vomiting words again, talking about how the Kirijo had split off from another company by the name of Nanjo Group and how they could also be involved in the supernatural. He also went on rants about many different things, like how megacorporations are greedy or how the conspiracy theory community wasn't like the good old days. I didn't understand most of it but he seemed very passionate about it. There was something nice about that passion, that pure joy from something he clearly cared about, similar to how awesome destroying things was me.  
"When I was teen I focused on stuff that mattered, corporate corruption or the possibility of extraterrestrial life, but the kids nowadays only care about dumb stuff. Lizard people and monsters or whatever."

"Yeah, because aliens building the pyramids isn't dumb." John replied. It was sarcasm but I sensed no malice coming from it.

"I never said aliens built the pyramids! Of course they didn't, there are historical records proving that. I only said that the egyptians could have, maybe, taken inspiration from them."

"Sure, sure."

John, meanwhile, was much more calm and laidback than John. He occasionally interrupted Souji to make his own remarks and move the conversation fowards without ever trying to take it over. I got the sense he was rather used to it.

Eventually I decided to go to sleep. John and Souji stayed downstairs for a little while before following me towards John's room.

I lie down on the sleeping bag on the floor, next to me coffin is also inside a sleeping bag. He seems to turn to look at me every so often but soon he stops.

I try avoiding staring at the window and how there was no green light coming from it. Eventually, I just shift myself so that I am staring at the wall. I am not tired but soon enough I fall asleep anyway.

I dream of doors, a big clock and a hole in the wall.


	3. Dangers

Both of the cousins are not in the room when I wake up. A bright light shines through the window. I can't help but emulate what John first said when he saw you.

"What the hell?"

I walk to the window and look outside. There is a glowing ball of fire in the sky! Everything was so bright, the sky was now blue and it had a giant ball of light! This was even wronger than it was before!

I run out of the room and go downstairs. I see coffin eating something but I just ignore him and go directly to the frontdoor. I try to open it but it doesn't budge.

"Woah, Plume. What is it?" coffin asks, as if everything was fine, as if there wasn't some big alien thing in the sky!

"Don't you see the outside? There's something in the sky! You're not going to tell me that's normal too, right?"

"Something in the sky?" he says. He then runs towards me, picks the key from his pocket and opens the door.

We are both outside and you can finally see that thing. It glows so brightly that it illuminates everything!

"What are you looking at?" he asks me, glancing all over the sky.

"That thing!" you point at it.

"What, the Sun?" he asks.

"Wait, that's the Sun?" I knew what the Sun was. "But what is it doing here? Shouldn't it be on the other side of the planet?"

"No? The Sun moves as times goes on. It rises during the morning and goes down during the evening. Although, it's more correct to say we're the ones moving-"

I just kept staring at the sun while coffin talks. So that's the Sun? I knew what the Sun was but to think it would move?

"-or maybe not, since movement is about point of reference too. So if you take Earth as the point of reference then it's Sun that's moving." coffin continues.

"Where's the Moon?" you ask.I just realized it's not there in the sky like it should be.

"The Moon is not visible during the day. I mean, sometimes it is but most of time it isn't"

"This is wrong..." I say. The ocean and the sky had the wrong colors and now the Sun and Moon just move around? The world was getting weirder and weirder.

"I wonder why do you think it's wrong. It must be related to the Kirijo research you came out of." he says and it infuriates me. Can't he see how wrong this is?

"C'mon Plume. Let's just go inside and eat breakfast. Are you hungry?" he asks.

"No." I am done with this. I turn around, go inside and then sit in one of the armchairs with my arms crossed.

Why can't the world just be normal?

I wait until Souji finishes eating. He then goes to me carrying a backpack.

"Hey, do you want to show me where you came from now?" he asks.

"Sure." I reply.

"Alright! Then, please show me way." he says enthusiastically.

Both of you leave the hotel. Crossing the town I realize that most shops are still closed but some seem to be opening up. A few people stare at me but they don't do anything.

Then coffin and I were on the beach. Everything was so bright and clear. The sky was now light blue istead of the dark that was before. Looking at the ocean I see the glow of the sky being reflected in the blue waves. It was pretty, in an unsettling sort of way.

"How is the world like when I was a coffin?" he asks.

"The sky was green, the ocean was red and the moon was greenish yellow. Or yellowish green."

"Huh, that sounds creepy. Fits with the 'coffin thing' that you mentioned. I wonder if it's some sort of alternate dimension or rift In time or something." he theorizes. It's weird how he finds that creepy but not this.

Sometime later, we are near the pier where we met eachother.

"That's the pier you scared the absolute heck out of me, and also where I lost my glasses when I fell into the ocean. Where do we go from here?" he asks.

"We go there." I point towards the treeline. "There is a dirt road behind the trees."

We go through the palm trees and eventually reach the big cedar forest. The dirt road is still there.

I look up at the tree top, how the Sun's ray of light cross the gaps between the leaves and hit the florest ground.

"Oh, hell!" I hear coffin mutter, breaking me out of your reverie. He then pulls me behind a bush.

"What is i-" I were going to ask him before he covers my mouth.

"Stay quiet." he whispers, then he points up ahead.

It's the concrete wall with the private property sign and the big rusted steel gate. Except the gate was knocked out of it's hinges, the doors bent on the ground. In front of the broken gate were a couple of black jeeps. I could also see people inspecting the scene. They wore black outfits and were carrying rifles.

"We have to get out of here." Souji whispers.

I peek over the bushes and try to get a better look at the armed people. I know I am strong, strong enough to push through concrete, but something told me that having a rifle pointed at you is not a good thing.

"Be careful, cyan and white is not very good camouflage." Souji whispers. I stop peeking and go back behind the bush. I am glad coffin pulled me behind it. I was so distracted by the sunlight on the treetops that I would have been seen if not for him.

Who are these people? Are they part of that Kirijo Group coffin talked about? What are they doing here?

"I don't think we should go back to the road, let's go through the woods. Stay low." he whispers. As the both of us are about to leave I hear the sound of a motor, forcing us to stay in our hiding spot.The engine coming nearer and with it the sound of tire traveling on gravel. I can feel the vibration on the air as a car passed through where both of us were standing just a few moments before.

Peeking out of the bush again, I notice that a black sports car is stopping near where the gate is. The doors of the car opened and five people came out. None of them were wearing black military-like outfits like the ones inspecting the gate, instead two of them were wearing white coats and the other three were wearing black suits. The ones with rifles stopped doing whatever they were doing and started talking with the newly arrivals.

"C'mon, this is our chance." Souji whispers and I agree. It seems all of them were distracted talking about something.

Both Souji and I stay crouched as we start moving towards the woods, away from the road and and the gate. Soon coffin hides behind one of the big cedar trees and I follow him.

"Alright, let's try to keep this tree between us and them." he says and I nod. After that we started quickly moving farther away, using the tree as cover to stay out of sight. Then Souji started running and I followed suit. Looking backwards I notice that the gate was no longer visible, replaced instead by the sight of trees. Souji's running became a full-on sprint but I can keep up with easily. In fact, I can probably run even faster.

Souji stops and I stop with him. He is heaving. "I need to exercise more." he mutters to himself.

"Was that the Kirijo Group?" I ask.

"I don't know. I didn't see any logos or anything." he says.

Didn't he say earlier that the test sites the Kirijo Group had in the island was abandoned? It seemed abandoned, what with all the dust it had everywhere. So why were they here?

"Do you think they are looking for the other ones? There was more than one hole." I say.

"More than one hole? I thought you were the only one?" he asks.

"No, there were more holes. Well, there was one more hole I saw, there might have been more. It's wasn't me-shaped though, it was shaped more like a bloby lump."

"Really? So there might be more like you out there. It's possible they are looking for both them and you."

"Why? What do they want with me? What gives them the right to put me on a wall and send people with guns after me?" I am not sure who these Kirijo Group people are but they stuck you on a wall and then show up with rifles? They don't seem nice.

"I don't know, but if I had to guess it probably isn't something good. No corporation gets that big by being nice and the fact they were messing with the supernatural, and not only that but also messing with you, a sentient intelligent being, doesn't exactly help with their trustworthiness. I don't think they are the kind of people we want to give the benefit of the doubt."

There is some silence between us as the realization of what is happening starts hitting me. There are bad people after me, people with guns that want to catch you.

But they aren't after only me, right? They are after the other ones that came out of a hole. I can feel an ache within. How were they? They didn't have someone like Souji to help them. Images come to my mind. Images of people like me, roaming the world when suddenly everything goes wrong. Of how afraid and alone they must've been when that happened. Images of them being hunted down by these people.

"W-we need to get out of the island! John was seeing stuff with the hotel-owner about paying the broken windown but he must be done by now. We go back to the hotel, get our and stuff and John then we get on the boat and leave this place!" Souji says, his voice nearly cracking. I can hear he was nervously chuckling a little bit under his breath.

I am afraid. What will happen to me if they catch me? I can just go with Souji and John, get on a boat and leave the island. What happens to the others isn't my responsibility. I never asked to be in this situation! And besides, if I get caught then there is nothing I would be able to do to help them anyway, right?

I look at Souji and say "But what about the others like me? We can't abandon them!" What am I saying? I can abandon them, it would be as easy as following Souji towards the boat! I can just leave and be done with it.

"What?" he asks.

"I can't leave them behind. What if I was them?" I want to leave. I want to just agree with Souji and not be afraid anymore.

Souji was staring towards the ground, refusing to look in my eyes.

"I'm not going to leave them. I'm going to find them and help them." As much as I want to leave, I have realized that I can't. They are just like me and I have to be there for them, even if I have never met them.

"Plume, I'm just a college drop-out and you haven't existed for a day! What can the two of us even do for them? What happens if we get caught?"

"I'm going to help them!" I made up my mind.

"I want to help them too!" Souji was looking at you now. I can see the fear in his face "But we can't do anything, we're just putting ourselves at risk for people neither of us has even met! C'mon, Plume, let's just leave. We can try to find out more about you and all of this later, some other way."

"No!" I say firmly.

"Plume, please, think about this! You don't even know if there are more people like you. You said that you saw only one other hole that was not even shaped like a person. What if it was a hole made years ago? What if those people in black are looking for you and only you? Then we'd risking our lives for nothing!" he argues and he has kinda of a point. Ever since I saw the other wall hole I just assumed there were others like you but what if there are not?

"But what if there are other people like me! Will you just abandon them because they might not exist?" I counterargue.

"Hell..." coffin mutters, he then walks up to a tree and sits on the ground. He puts one of his hands in his forehead. I can hear him giggling faintly under his breath until he stops. I don't think he finds this situation funny.

I don't know what to do so I sit next to him.

"You know" he starts talking "I never thought that decisions like this would ever happen to me. This, and you, are the most interesting thing that has ever happend in my life."

I don't know what to say, so you don't say anything.

"How do we even begin looking for them? This is an entire island and we're just two people." That makes you look at him.

"So, you're going to help me?" I ask.

"Yes. I'm sure that if I don't help you then I'll regret it for the rest of my life." he said as he started to get up. "We should also get out of here."

I am glad coffin decided to help you. I do not think I would want to do this alone.

"Seriously though, how do we even begin looking for them? Maybe we should go back to the hotel and talk to John about this."

With the plan to investigate the lab no longer viable and no idea of where to start looking for the other hole people, Souji and I decided to go back to the hotel and talk to John to come up with a plan. In the journey back we didn't go to the beach but rather stayed in the treeline, a little bit further in the divide between the palm trees and the sand. "We don't know if they have helicopters or some other sort of air surveillance, so it's better to not stay in the open." Souji reasoned and it seemed sensible.

Upon reaching the town we went straight to the hotel. On the way there I also attracted the stares of the townspeople again. It seemed that more shops were open then before and there were even more people out and about. Despite how small the town was I was never around so many people before. Even when I tried to avoid looking at themI could still feel their gazes upon me. I didn't like it so I started walking even faster than before.

"Hey, wait up!" I hear coffin shout behind me. I reach the hotel entrance and wait for him to catch up. "Why are you running? We already are drawing too much attention from the townspeople."

"I'm not running! I just didn't want to be there so I left quickly." Such slander on my person!

"You still drew people's attention. Well, you were already doing that, cyan skin and of all that but, ah, whatever. I'll just get you some clothes later so you won't draw attention in a crowd. Maybe a hoodie? I could also get you my pair of sunglasses..." he continue and seemed to get lost in thought for a few moments, before shaking his head and opening the door for us to get inside.

Within there are two people in the middle of conversation. One of them is John and the other is some woman in a blue suit.

"-the new one? My daughter really loves that show! She watches it all the time and I started watching it together with her. Brings me back memories of when I watched it as a kid." the woman was saying.

"Uh, John." Souji interrupted the conversation. "Who is she?"

"Oh, the lady here is Ueno Takako, the hotel manager. She came here to see about the broken window but we started talking istead." he said.

"And you must be Souji-san." the woman said as she extended her arm to shake hands with coffin. She looked at me briefly, a confused smile showing in her face before she turned back to Souji. "He told me about why you came here to Yakushima. I'm sorry for your loss."

"Uh, it's ok. I never knew him that much" Souji answered awkwardly. He didn't seem to know what to say next.

"And who are you?" the woman asked me next. I can see that the smile on her face is forced. I frowned. What is wrong with her? Has she never seen someone as cool as me before?

"I'm Plume of Dusk." I shake her hand and don't smile. I am not going to smile for someone who wasn't being genuine.

"Plume of Dusk? Is that some sort of costume thing?" She then gestures to my body.

"Oh!" Souji answers for me "Yes! We were at, uh, a costume party. In another hotel, here, on Yakushima Island. She is cosplaying as a character from a show."

"Oh, nice!" This time her smile did seem genuine. "From what show is the character from?"

"It's from, uh, Feathermen." Souji hastily replies.

"Really! I haven't seen this character yet! Oh, I guess this would be spoilers. I really liked the costume, by the way. You make the colored skin look so cute! And the glowing golden eyes are cool, how did you do that?"

"Contact lenses!" John says. "They're special contact lenses. I'm sorry, but I really need to talk to John about something urgent."

"Oh. Well, I suppose it must be important. I was already leaving soon, anyway." She then turned to John and said "It was a pleasure talking to you. If I visit Tokyo then you will have to show me to the filming sets."

"I'll be sure to do that. Call me later tonight?" John says.

The woman nods and then after saying goodbye leaves the hotel. After she is gone, John drops the smile and turns to Souji.

"Dude, we were totally hitting it off! Couldn't you have just waited?"

"This is more important than you getting into another love affair."

"It's not an affair! We're not datin-"

"Not important!" coffin just brushes him off. "There are soldiers in the inland looking for Plume!"

"Soldiers?" John's asks, the anger in his voice just moments before gone. "From the government?"

"Maybe? It was hard to see any form of logo without my glasses."

"We need to rescue the others like me!" I say before they say anything else. This is what's most important now. "There were other holes where I came from and they could be looking for other people like me and we need to rescue them. I know it's scary and you want to leave like Souji did but you have to help us! Please!"

"Right!" John answers immediately. "What are we going to do? Do you know where they are?" That makes me take a step back. He agreed, just like that? Souji had a whole breakdown about it and John just said yes without thinking twice.

"We don't really know. The gates were destroyed so at least one of them left the test site area." I answer

At this, Souji step fowards. "I think I have an idea. John can go look into the test site for clues while me and Plume use the boat to scour the coast."

"Hey dude, you don't know how to drive a boat. Why can't you go to the test site?"

"Because I don't want to. They have people with guns there!"

"And why the hell would you think I would want to go there?"

"You always claim you're so brave, why not go prove it? Besides, I'm pretty sure those soldiers aren't looking for some random young adult american guy. They're not going to shoot you if they find you. Worse they'll do is sue you."

"Oh, yes, because the people with guns will resort to a strongly worded letter to deal with the person trying to dig up dirt on their shady-ass supernatural mystery!"

Both of them started arguing with one another. Can't they see that we don't have time to waste with arguments? Every second that passes is another second that those soldiers are closer to capturing the others. You need to do something!

Whatever it is I need to do, you won't do it by hearing them argue with one another. I leave the room and go towards the back of the hotel. From there I see a door next to a window leading outside. There is an open area behind the hotel, surrounded by palm trees and hills. It's surprisingly isolated from the rest of the town.

I walk outside and look up. It's hard to tell at first but the sun is in a different position than it was when I last looked at it.

I shake your head and close my eyes. I remember that feeling I had when I was testing your glowing powers earlier today. Kouha, the name comes to me naturally. I focus on that same feeling as before, the one that comes from inside me, and throw it. "Kouha!" I shout as I throw the ball of energy into the ground, the impact raising dirt into the air.

If I can do this, then what else can I do?

I try to search for any other feeling that comes from inside but nothing happens.

Oh, now that there are no stuff around that you shouldn't break, new destructive powers aren't showing up! Of course, that makes sense!

Maybe I am trying this the wrong way? When I discovered Kouha I was already messing with my glowing powers, perhaps I should do the same now?

Turning up the glow in your body, I try to pay attention to any new sensations. That's when I feel it, something similar, but different. While with Kouha I could feel energy materializing like a floating liquid around you, this time it's not like that. It's quick and volatile, it wants to leave immediately. With a quick movement of my arms, I throw it into one of the palm trees. A multitude of bright flashes cover the trunk, lighting up the clearing I am in. They are accompanied by ear deafening sounds that make me cover your ears. It doesn't hurt to listen but it's very uncomfortable. This has to be the loudest thing you ever heard, the cracking sound of glass doesn't even compare!

After it stops, I rush over to check the palm tree. It has a few scorch marks but otherwise it doesn't seem to be damaged. So that thing I did doesn't seem to actually hurt that much. Not that I want to hurt people, I do not, well maybe the ones responsible for putting you in that wall a little bit, but it was a bit underwhelming compared to Kouha.

Underwhelming or not though, I will not refuse anything that can help me find the others.

"Plume, what was that?" I hear Souji's voice ask you. Looking back to the hotel I can see that both coffin and John stopped talking, probably to check out the very loud, powerful and awesome noise that I made.

"A new power! I can throw light!" And also make a very, very loud noise.

"Couldn't you already do that? The townspeople are probably going to want to check what that noise was. So much for hiding you here quietly..." he trails off.

"I have a bunch of cool powers, I can help! I can throw light, throw a different kind of light, be really strong. Maybe I can distract the bad guys and lead them away! That way, we could check out the lab." It made sense, right?

"That seems... not wise." says coffin. "They're looking for you, going out of your way to distract them seem very counter-intuitive." coffin says.

"Yeah." John agrees. "Also, there is a real possibility they might shoot you on sight. Dunno 'bout you, what with you being you, but I have an aversion to lead bullets."

"And what am I suppose to do. Sit here and do nothing? I want to go out there and help find them!"

BOOM!!!

Just as I finished your sentence, I hear a sound that is competing for the first spot of loudest sound I have ever heard. All of us turn to it's source, the town in the other side of the hotel. Soon, the sound of screaming follows.

"What the hell was that?" John so eloquently asks.

I run, entering through the hotel's backdoor and go through the front entrance. From there I see what is happening.

One of the small beach-front shops is up in smokes. People are running away from it. From the smoke you make out a shape. It's a big lump with arms and, although it's hard to tell from where I am standing, it seems to be bigger than me, maybe even double my size!

It leave the smoke and starts crawling towards me. I notice it doesn't have any legs and istead it relies completely on its arms to drag its body around. The arms are long and unnatural. It emitted an ear-scrachting sound, like a distorted inhumane growl. It's body, which seemed to be somewhere between a solid construct and a moving liquid, was a dark purple. The only parts of it that weren't purple were its red-stained claws and a... strange rock.

Is this thing like me? Did it also come from the lab wall? It's just so... not me. I didn't expect them to be like this.

It continues to crawl towards me, its (hers?) growls are getting louder and louder.

I can feel something churning inside me. Could I have been like this? Could this have been me? Just crawling around and growling, with a body that barely holds itself together, not capable of feeling the sand on my feet because I wouldn't even have any? Just thinking about it makes me feel not good, very not good.

"Jesus Christ!" I can hear Souji shout from behind me. "Is this what I think it is?"

It (they?) start crawling faster towards me, soon it is almost upon me.

"What are you doing?" I ask her.

She only growls in response.

"Why did you destroy that building?"

She is standing right in front of me. I can't help but notice the red-stained claws again.

"Were you trying to get something out of the ocean? Destroying buildings doesn't sound like a very effective way to do that, heh." I do not really know what to say in a situation like this. I did not expect the others to look so different, or to not even try to talk to me. Can she even talk? She just growled until now, maybe she doesn't know how to speak japonese?

I don't understand why she is like that and I feel kinda bad for just staring earlier, but I have to help them, right? To try and talk to them. She might look different but she is like me! It's the closest person to understanding how I feel. And maybe, if we were to pool together our knowledge of the situation, both of us can finally understand what is going on.

"Plume, get away from it!" I turn around and see Souji and John backing away. Do they think she is dangerous? It did destroy a building, sure, but I also destroyed a few stuff.

"I know it's scary and I don't really get what's going on either." I start saying. I try to look at her eyes but she didn't really have any so I stare at her strange rock istead. That rock was an important part of her, I knew that to be true. "But maybe we can try to figure out together? I can't promise to find out what's going on but I can promise to try!" I really hope she understands. I appreciate Souji's help but he doesn't get it, not like she would. She understands how scary it is to wake up alone and for everything to be wrong. She might understand me!

If she comprehended what I said she didn't say anything, not even a growl. In fact, she went silence as she pulled her arms back.

Maybe she only needs someone to help her?

A memory comes across my mind. I were angry and scared, and then Souji extended his hand towards me so you decided to do the same. She must be feeling just like I was.

"My name is Plume of Dusk and I think maybe you could do with a friend right now." I extend my hand towards her, hoping she would reach out for it. She continues to stand still, her arms still pulled back. For some moments, the world seemed to stand still and I was filled with anticipation. Even though my eyes were fixed on her 'face', I assumed that John and Souji were also waiting to see what would happen considering they were not saying anything.

She continue to stand still, not reaching for my hand.

Well, this is awkward. Maybe she didn't realize that I was offering to be her friend? I thought I made the implication pretty obvious.

"I'd like to be that friend, if you'll let me." There, desire for friendship explicitly made! Now all she needed is to accept and then I can help her not feel alone anymore.

She finally extended her hand to mine. I can feel a warm feeling inside you, knowing that I helped her. That she won't have to suffer alone in this weird and wrong world.

"I know-" I never got to finish the sentence as she quickly used one of her hands to reach out and hold my arm. Not my hand, my arm, and quite strongly too.

"Oh, you were supposed to hold my hand, n-" She pulled me towards her and then she used her other claw to lift me by the neck. I could no longer feel the ground beneath my feet. I can hear a faint voice in the background screaming my name.

Before I can even process what's going on, my sense of balance is thrown off. The sound of wind assault my ears and my hair blocks my vision. For a small moment I feel nothing holding me, as if I was flying in the air.

Wait, did she just threw me-

My body hits the wooden wall and doesn't stop. For the first time I feel pain, an awful feeling over my body that ruins my train of though and draws my focus towards that unbearable sensation. I can see countless wooden splinters flying off every direction for a brief instance before I close your eyes on instinct. One final impact, not as strong as the one I just experienced, hits my body as I finally make contact with the ground again. I slide on the polished wooden floor until my momentum finally ends.

"Ouch. So that's what pains feel like."

I try to get yourself up. My body hurts and it makes the act of getting up harder than before. When I get on my knees the first thing I do is to check the rock in your chest for any damage. It's an instinctive reaction. What even is this stupid rock and why do I feel it's important?

I shake your head and try to get up, nearly losing my balance in the process. It doesn't matter what this rock is, what matter is that she threw me through the wall! What the hell! Why would she do that? You also came from a wall and you don't throw people! Terrify them and drag them through the beach, sure, but not throw them!

I can hear growling as she enters the hotel lobby through the crack in the wall.

"Why the hell did you do that?" I ask but it seems she is not listening. She charges in my direction, claws at the ready. I jump back, narrowly avoiding her strike. The wooden floor I was standing on just moments before cracks, pieces of board jump upwards due to the impact.

She is attacking me. I tried to help her and she is attacking me!

"I wanted to help you!" What does she think she is doing?! I open up to her, was genuine in my request for friendship and this is how she reacts? Was she planning on attacking me from the start?

She approaches me again, reading another slash. An idea comes to me. The stance I perfected is simple yet effective. With both feet planted firmly in the ground I punch the incoming claw, successfully deflecting the blow intended for you.

"Ha, take that! How does pain feel?" I can't help but smirk a little. Despite being mad at the betrayal of my trust, there's a certain exhilaration to fighting. The windows never fought back!

When I was preparing to deflect her next blow and thinking about what to do next, she actually steps back. A red light starts to emanate from her rock and soon it starts to take a material shape, swirling around her as if some sort of floating liquid. Wait, that looks familiar-

With one swift movement of her claws the red energy goes flying in my direction, straight into my chest.

An ear screeching shout echoes over the hotel lobby and I soon realize that it is my own. I am clutching at my rock and it hurts! The pain is so much I barely realize that I am on the ground. It was as if something struck at my very core.

A shadow looms over me. Lifting my face I see her. She grabs me by my chest, her claws sinking into my skin.

Is this it?


	4. Departure

I am somewhere, a fog surrounds me on all sides. I reach out your arm to touch it. You can't touch the fog, it's fog afterall, but I do realize that my arm feels so... light. In fact, my entire body feels light and hazy, almost as if it is as amorphous as the fog itself.

"Hello?" Nobody answers but I somehow knew that would be the case. Why would anybody else be here? I am not certain what this place is but for some reason the fact there is no one here besides me and myself here is as much a certainty to me as the fact that water is wet and the sky is green. Wait, that metaphor doesn't work. The sky wasn't green anymore, right?

I try to remember how you ended up here. Oh right, the other wall-person attacked me. That hurt! Was that some weird red version of Kouha? Why did she attack? It doesn't make sense! But the again, nothing seems to make sense. I do not anything that's going on, like always. Makes me wonder why I should even bother.

I wonder what happend to Souji and John. Did she attack them too? I hope not! The idea they might be hurt or worse is not something O want to think about.

I started walking because what else am I going to do in this place? Yet the more I walk the more I realize that I am not going anywhere. I am still in the middle of a fog and some part of me is certain that I did not even move. I am making my arms and legs go through the motions of walking yet it doesn't work because there is no ground to even walk on. Just fog. I most certainly don't scream in fustration.

The more I move my body, the more a certain feeling starts to surface. A feeling that my body is not solid but rather that it can be shaped, which is a very weird feeling to have! Was my clothes always a part of my body?

Some idea of changing how I look comes to my mind but I cast it aside. The thought of messing with my body in such a way disturbs me. What if it goes wrong?

I look around me, still surrounded by fog. How do I get out of here? Walking seemed to not be getting me anywhere. What if I can't get out of here? No, there surely must be some way. Perhaps some sort of power of mine?

I try to focus inwards. Both Kouha and that power I never got to name came from within, more specifically that rock in my chest. If there was any hope of finding an exit, it was there.

For some reason the rock felt more real than my body. While everything else about me was hazy and unclear, the rock had weight into it. It didn't blend into the shapeless fog but rather it stood in stark contrast, the only tangible thing in a vast sea of nothingness. It was in this moment that I came to a realization. I am the rock, and the rock is me. My body was never real to begin with, merely an extension of my true form. One that is not activated.

I 'smile' as a realization hits me. The reason my body feels so shapeless is because I don't have a body right now! It feels shapeless because it is shapeless! The 'body' I was moving just moments ago was just some conjuration from my mind to allow me to interact with this place, which is some sort of mental landscape! The reason I imagined having a body here is because having a body is all I have ever known!

It makes sense, right? Granted, I am making alot of assumptions here, but this has to be right because it means I actually know some of what Is going on istead of not knowing anything! How blissful the truth can be!

So, if this is some mental landscape and I don't have a body then how do I get a body? I think back to Kouha, how I captured that energy and gave it direction. What if istead of giving it a direction, I gave it a form?

I once again look inwards. A feeling rises within me as I will it, the same way I willed my fists to smash those windows. That feeling gives birth to energy, raw and shapeless, ready to be used as I desire it for it obeys my will and at the same time is my will. Soon, my mind takes it and shapes it around my imaginary body, first around my torso but then everywhere else. From my legs to my hair, it obeys my will and gives form to the body I have used since I remember. Even my clothes are formed and shaped from this energy.

It is done, and I am ready.

I open your eyes and the first thing I see is a small creature with eight legs crawling in a piece of wood that is far too close to my face.

"Ah!" I quickly throw the piece of wood away and the creepy eight-legged creatured with it and then quickly get up from my lying position in the floor. The piece of wood crashes loudly against the wall.

Was that a spider? They are scary. Way too many legs!

After a few moments pass and I am certain the spider won't be returning to harm me, I look around. I am in the hotel lobby where I fought her. There is wooden debris all over the floor, especially near the hole in the wall I unwillingly made when that... that meanie threw me! Sunlight still entered the room, albeit much less than before. Walking over to the window I look outside. The sky is now orange of all colors. Can't it just decide on a single color and stick with that?

"Hey! What are you doing here?" I turn to face the voice and see a man wearing a light blue shirt with a badge and a tie walking down the stairs of the hotel. He was holding something in his hand.

Once he reaches the ground floor he stops and looks at me. More specifically, he seems to be looking at my chest. Did he find he find the glowing rock in your chest pretty? I suppose I should be flattered but him looking at it so intently makes it creepy.

"P-Put you hands in the air!" he screams and then points the thing in his hands at me which I now realize is a gun! Guns are scary!

"Did you see a medium to large sized monster! I need to fight them!" I ask the man despite him pointing a gun at me. Sure, guns are scary and all, but meanie and I have unfinished business! Surely this man would understand.

"Put your hands on your head and go down in your knees!" he shouts while still pointing his gun at me. Kinda of a weird request if I am being honest. Why does he want me on my knees?

"No, I don't have time for this! I have to find the big blob meanie and teach her a lesson!" Forget about being on my knees! Can't he see? Fighting her is more important than whatever this is!

He stood still, aiming the gun at me. He occasionally looked at the door, windowns and the broken wall but his gaze never seemed to leave me long. Was he worried I was going to attack him? Or maybe he thought I was going to run, which wouldn't be an unreasonable assumption to make since guns are scary. Either way, you should try to reassure him that you won't attack him.

"Hey, don't worry! I'm not going to attack you! I just want to find out where meanie is so I can settle the score! You must have seen her, she is big, bloby, ugly, mean and has a weird rock in her body, like me! The rock part, everything else is not like me." Hopefully that will pacify him.

"I said, hands on your head and down on your knees!" That did not, in fact, pacify him. Actually, it only seemed to make him angrier. He really wants me down in my knees. The fear I had earlier is starting to go come back now. What if he does shoot me? That would really hurt my body, and by extension, me! Wait a moment...

"My body is not real!" I shout in realization. "You can't hurt me! My body is merely a projection of my consciousness so that gun of your is kinda useless! I mean, what are you even going to do with it? Sh-"

BANG!

So, I made a discovery. While my body might not be real that doesn't mean that I can't feel pain. Well, I suppose that is not a discovery exactly, I felt pain before, but it is something that slipped my mind. The pain that I am feeling in my left arm right now immediately reminds of that fact.

"AAAAAHHH" Forget what I just said, guns are not useless!

Before I even realize it, I am already running. It's as if my body is moving on it's own, taking me to whatever place is away from here.

I am outside. The town is changed from before, there is rubble in the streets and smoke is pouring out from nearly half of the buildings. There are also alot of people, some of them had blue shirts, other had black suits, most of them had guns. Guns that are drawn and pointed in my general direction. I immediatly turn to the side and start running. I can hear the shouts of men and the thumping of boots on the ground behind me and that only encourages me to move faster.

I continue my sprint until I exit the town and enter the treeline, an immense feeling of relief washing over me. They no longer have a line of sight to me so you should be safe, for now. That doesn't stop me from running though.

The forest starts to get thicker as I venture deeper inland. It's starting to get harder to keep full sprinting speed as I have to constanly dodge the trees in my way. Testing the limits of my reaction time would be fun if not for the danger of bulletholes in my not-real-but-feels-real body.

Avoiding the trees is actually so enganging that I don't even realize when the floor is no longer there.

I fall into some sort of pit, crashing into a dirt wall chest-first and thus causing shivers to shake my entire body. I then fall into the botton.

The pit is not very deep, it can't be double my height. It's cramped, the walls are made of dirt and I can feel mud and wet leaves on your back. Eww!

I shift to a sitting position and immediatly check my left arm. The cyan skin is still perfect and without blemishes. There is no sign whatsoever it was ever shot.

"Why does everyone want to kill me?" First meanie, now gun-crazie too? What did I ever do to them? I don't understand, but then again, when is that new?

I wonder where coffin is. Last I saw him he was with me when meanie destroyed my body. Is he okay? Did he run away when I was inside the mindscape? How long was I in there anyway? It didn't feel like a long time. I hope Souji is okay. I like him, he doesn't shoot me or pierce me with claws unlike nearly most people I have met.

Part of me wants to just stay here. After all you went through, getting up seems like an herculian task. And why should you even bother?

I was so determined to help her! I wanted to help her! To help them! They were like me, they could understand me, I would not be alone in feeling like this. I make the decision to stay and help even at my own risk. As brief as it was, for a small moment I had a mission, a purpose, something to guide me. There was a meaning to it. This bizarre and creepy world made sense and now it did not. Now I was back to being alone and scared.

I do not want to be alone and scared.

Why did meanie even attack me? What did she think she would achieve with that?

I have a weird feeling that I know what she wanted but whenever I try to dig deeper into it my mind goes blank. I try again and again but I can't do it. It is so frustating!

Screw her! Screw this! If they do not want my help so be it! I was doing just fine without them.

I can't stay here. It is only a matter of time until those man with guns find me, but I don't have to go right now, do I? I can just stay a little bit longer. I mean, what would I even do afterwards? Souji and John are no longer here and my mission of helping them was just a fantasy.

I don't have anything... except that's not really true, is it?

I remember the feeling I had back in the beggining. I had a goal, did I not? A duty and a purpose I was made for. Something bigger that I was meant to do. My mind was foggy about it but I knew I had something that guided me.

I was part of something greater, and if I stay in this pit then I will not be able to return!

My mind made, I look up towards the treetops and start thinking on what I could do. It was getting dark and the rays of sunlight crossing the mass of leaves was no longer visible like before. I suppose that is a sign that the sun is moving away.

Do people in general normally look up? I do not really knowwhat normal people are like, do I? The only people you ever interacted with are Souji and John. What do they do when they are not helping me? Do they normally look up? I don't remember them looking at the ceiling.

An ideas come to me and I ca not help but smile at my brilliance.

I get up and as I do the yucky mud just slides off my body, leaving me as clean as before.

I look up and prepare to ascent. I do not know how high up I can jump but I am about to find out!

I flex my knees, so much so that my butt nearly touches the ground. I can feel the energy building up in my legs. My fists made me proud with their punches but now it's my legs' time to shine, metaphorically!

I spring up! For a very brief moment, I can hear a splashing sound as the mud at my feet gets launched. It takes no time at all for me to reach surface level and yet I keep ascending. I am assaulted by leaves and branches poking at my face at an incredible speed, some of it even gets in my mouth. Surprisingly, it doesn't actually taste that bad. It's slightly crunchy.

Gravity starts to slow down myascent and for a short while I feel as if I am floating in the air. I can see the sun half-submerged into the ocean, shinning different hues of orange onto both the sky and the sea. Bichibyo Town is in the distance and faint traces of smoke leave a few of the buildings.

The entire view was beautiful in an otherworldly way. I could stay here all day admiring it if it where not for the fact that gravity would not allow it.

The fall felt way less magnificent than the rise, mostly due to the fear of imminent impact.

"Ughh!" I mutter as I land. It did hurt, a little bit. Thankfully I landed on my head and not on my chest so I am okay!

You prepare to jump once again but this time you don't put so much energy into it to launch past the tree tops. Istead, you aim your trajectory to reach the branches of one of the big cedar trees.

My aim is flawless! I land with both feet on the branch with perfect balance, not tripping or wavering.

I look down and see that there is quite a distance from the ground. A hole in the ground would draw attention to any would-be Plume of Dusk shooters, but the treetops? This is the perfect hiding spot since people do not normally look up! I hope!

The plan was to wait for the men to come here and then leave. My genius can be scary sometimes!

Now all that is left to do is to wait so I wait.

And then I wait some more.

And then I wait even more.

I await their passage.

...

Wow, this waiting thing is kinda boring, is it not? It is really not for me.

I decide to climb up to the very top of the tree, past all the leaves. With my head above them I can once again see the view of my surroundings. Bichibyu Town and the setting sun are still there. And the ocean...

I had to leave this island. I knew, with a certainty deep within me, that whatever it is I was meant to do it is not here. My mission lies across the ocean. I can feel the call of my mission, guiding me away from here.

Of course, the matter was how to leave this island. I could not just walk the entire way under the ocean (right?) so I have to find a way out.

There were alot of boats in Bichibyu and, from what I remember from that map of the island, there were more towns in Yakushima. Going back to Bichibyu Town was not an option but maybe by roaming the coast of the island I could find a boat.

After all this time I do not think those badguys are going to pass through here so I decide to start moving. But just because I abandom my post does not mean that I scrapped my plan entirely.

I bend my legs, aim and then leap, landing on the branch of a different tree. Another perfect jump! I am a natural at this. Allowing myself a smile at my victory, I prepare myself and then leap again into another tree. After that, I do another leap, then another and then yet another. I start getting a rythm for this, taking less and less time between each jump as my muscle memory starts to take place.

Jumping through the woods is even better than running through the woods!

I was almost losing yourself on the joy of jumping between branches when I remembered that this is what led me to fall into pit in the first place so I decide to stop. Good thing I did because I started seeing fellow light-sources in the distance moving about. My yellow wall-people eyes had no trouble focusing into this curiosity.

There are figures in the distance holding little light tubes. Flashlights, I quickly correct yourself. Or torches. They were the same people that were in the town, which made sense since I was getting closer to it. It was getting really dark now and they used the flashlights to illuminate their surroundings. I can not help but notice that they were not pointing the torches upwards.

Smilling to myselfself, I continue to jump. I am careful as to not make as much noise. I leap without causing the trees to shake or leaves to fall as if my body was weightless. I am close to them now, so close I start to hear some things of what they are saying.

"...monster...it to the specialists..."

"...order are...minister..."

"...suspect...way..."

I can't make out what they are whispering beyond some words but the fact I can understand anything at all from this distance is surprising. I suppose I can add enhanced hearing to the ever-growing 'things I can do that I am pretty sure is not normal but I am getting used to it' list.

They continue to search the woods, not once looking up, when I leave them behind. After some more jumping I can't even see their flashlights anymore. Perfect stealth!

As much fun as jumping between tree was, all good things must come to an end. Palm trees don't have the strongest or most stables of branches so yI was forced to go back to ground. Once again I can feel dirt, sand and dry leaves beneath your feet.

The beach is up ahead. Looking to the side I can see Bichibyu so I start walking towards the other direction. The town had alot of boats on it but it was too dangerous to go back. As long as I scour the coast, I had to find another boat eventually.

I can feel the air move quite swiftly even when I am standing still. It is making my hair constantly get in front of my face and the sleeves of my onepiece to get quite flappy. It's weird how I can feel the wind even when I am not moving. Was it always like this and I just did not notice before or is this a new development? It is still weird but it is no so bad. Actually, it is oddly calming.

For some time I just wander the coast, enjoying the wind on my hair and trying my best to not look towards the ocean or the sky.

Eventually I reach a small shallow creek flowing into the ocean. On the other side are several umbrellas and chairs. The ground near it has several smashed empty cans. There is nobody in sight.

Being submerged in creepy transparent water once is enough for me so I leap over the creek. I was prepared to move onwards in my quest when I notice something in the corner of your eye. Upstream on the creak is a small wooden dingy boat.

A boat! Just what I was looking for! How convenient. It probably belonged to someone but they abandoned it here together with all this junk so they probably don't care about it. Besides, I need it!

I skip over to it and after totally not tripping and getting wet anyway I am able to slide the dingy boat across the creek and into the ocean. With one push, the brave little boat starts it's journey across the sea. A quick little jump and I am inside.

The boat barely shakes when I land on it. It merely continues its rhythmic upwards and downwards movements in synchrony with the waves.

I look backwards, towards the ever-distancing island I left behind. That place is all that I can remember. I have no memory of anything before waking up in that room except my new mission. That feeling of purpose was with me from the beginning, it's something that ties you into whatever it is I was before.

I close your eyes and take a deep breath. That feeling within me, a calling that pulled you over. Barely perceptible unless I paid attention yet still there. It did not tell me much of where I needed to go beyond a very vague feeling that I needed to cross this ocean, but that was enough for now.

"Bye, Yakushima Island! Now I head onwards towards my destiny!" I shout to the small landmass behind you. No more dusty labs and muddy pits for me!

"Bye Souji and bye John, whenever you are." Coffin offered to help me when I was alone and scared. He was nice and I miss him. "I am sorry for leaving without saying goodbye."

I hope I can see him again someday, when there no longer are armed badguys and clawed blobs after me.

Alright, time to start this thing. I just have to turn on the engine and get out of here!

"Uh." Small problem. There is no engine. This is just a small dingy boat with no motor and that puts a damper on my plans.

I start to look around the dingy for anything of use and you find it! Under one of the seats is a paddle! A very small paddle but it will do.

Time to leave. I have no idea what I will find but I continue anyway.


	5. On Board & Midnight at Sea

"Paddle, paddle, paddle, away!

Paddle, until the end of the day!

Paddle, paddle, paddle! Paddle, paddle, paddle!

Paddle the boredon away!

Because I'm so booooorrrreeeddd

of paddling, but I'll do it anyway!

Because it's not like I have a choice

I'm commited to my path

i've been paddling for so long

To turn back now would be insane

Paddle, paddle, paddle, away!

Paddling away

from this boredom I'm feeling of this non-ending paddling, THIS IS WORSE THAN WAITING ON TOP OF THE TREE!"

I breathe in, breathe out and sit down. The dingy boat I am on is completely surround by water. It has been some time since Yakushima was no longer within my line of sight. I can't tell the exact amount of time that has passed, I don't have a clock or anything, but if I have anything to say about it is that is has been far too long!

It wasn't boring at first. The uneasiness of being surrounded by waters of an unnatural color keept on edge. I still remember the moment the Sun finally finished it's slow and seemingly unending movement by disappearing into the ocean's horizon. Not long after that the hue of the sky changed and everything darkened. Those small flickering lights came out of whatever hole they were hiding in and once again infested the sky.

However that feeling didn't last forever. As wrong as the ocean looked, there are so many times it can unsettle me before it starts becoming routine. As weird as it sounds, I suppose that I am getting used to it.

I did try to find some distraction and joy by focusing all of my attention on paddling. It was fun seeing how I could move the dingy around by pushing the water, but even that got boring eventually.

Somewhere along the way I came up with the idea of singing, another new activity I never tried. I came up with the paddle song all by myself and I am already sick of it.

My mind wanders to the past and thinks of what could have been if I actually got a boat with an engine, but alas I have already paddled far too much to go back. I am commited now. I just have to keep at it and continue which I what I will do... later.

I lie down on the boat and rest for a while.

The moon is white and smaller, yet even in this reduced state it still is so very captivating. I wonder what it is like to be there, to walk on it's surface. It must be pretty cool. Has anyone ever been there? I feel like some has. It must be quite the accomplishment considering how far away it is. Could I go there? I want to go there! Would it be hard? If I wanted to go there what should I-

The moon suddenly gets immensely bigger and changes color. The stars in the sky vanish as green clouds overtake the once colorless void and reflect the yellow glow of the moon. It's... beautiful! I will never going to take this view for granted again!

I spring up and look around. A red ocean surrounds my little dingy, as it should! I can no longer feel the wind in my hair, which is kinda sad, but everything else is great! So the world wasn't wrong forever! It must have been a temporary thing. Oh, the relief and joy that brings me!

"Hahaha, yes!" I can't help but shout. No more unsettling unexpected things with the world! Things were right!

With a smile on your face, you once again stare upwards towards the moon. It looks even better now! I could stay here and bask on its visage forever.

That is, until you remember there's more paddling to do.

"Right. Just because the world is okay again doesn't mean I'm not still alone in the middle of the ocean."

I sit back up, grab the paddle and sigh.

"Ughhh, I don't want to do this anymore." I ignore myself and do it anyway.

I paddle for an unbearable amount of time.

I was almost stopping for another break when I finally see something besides the ocean. It is a shape in the horizon. I can't tell what it is at first but soon the silhouette starts to take shape. It is a boat, and not a small dingy one but a proper one! Not too big, it probably has a crew of just a few people, but it's bigger than anything I have ever been on.

The boat is still and the lights are off. Maybe they're having issues? If that's the case then perhaps I should go help them. Or maybe they're just sleeping, it is the middle of the night afterall. Either way, that boat is not paddling so deciding to go there to check it out is easy.

I start to paddle in the direction of the boat faster than before. I am almost free!

Some time later and the boat is at shouting distance. I stop yet the momentum still carries the dingy across the still red ocean.

"Hello! Anyone there? People do not shoot me!"

I await with bathed breath for an answer, yet after some moments nothing happen. No one shows up to greet me.

"Hey? Is anyone inside? Can I come in?"

I ask again. Once again, nothing answer me.

"I am going onboard!" I warn whoever might be listening.

You jump into the bigger boat and land in the open area behind the cabin. I then proceed to hug the floor and be thankful to be free at last from that torment! No more paddling for me!

I head towards the cabin door and knock. Nobody answer so I decide to open it and go inside.

There is a big panel filled with buttons and levers as well as a big circle thing connected to it. Behind it is a window showing the endless red sea. I'm guessing that this thing controls the boat. Definitely more complicated than paddling.

I turn around around to look at the rest of thje cabin when I see coffin?!

The familiar tall black coffin I saw before looms over me.

"Souji is that you?" What is he doing here? Why is he a coffin again? Was this Souji and John's boat?

He told me that he did not remember anything about being a coffin. Does that means he got stuffed into a coffin agaist his will? Who is doing that to him? Is he being stuffed into a coffin or actually being transformed into one? Souji did transform back to normal when the world went weird so maybe those things is associated, but there is no way to know.

Is he is danger?

A feeling surged in my chest. I have to help him!

"Souji! Don't worry, I'll get out of this coffin!" I shout even though I know he cannot hear me.

I grab the coffin with both my hands and start to pull it apart. It doesn't budge, even a little, yet I keep trying because I must. Yet no matter how much strengh and effort I put into it the things remains whole.

I once dug through concrete with these very hands! What is thing thing made out of?

If brute force will not work then I will try something else.

I search deep within for that energy. At my command the glowly floaty liquid followed my arms where it remained in barely contained power. I move one of my legs back, close my fists and lead my arms into position. Then I move.

With my technique in action, my fists slam the Kouha energy into the coffin. A bright light blinds me and the loud sound of the impact reverberates through the cabin.

I can feel it. My hand went through. Inside I feel a presence. This thing, this 'coffin', I need to use my energy to break it. With my spare hand I reach into my rock, my being, me, and look for more of it. That raw power I can produce and shape to my will. I can feel it as it reaches out to another light, another being. They are like me, aware, alive, in touch with a magnificent sea of interconnected lights and concepts that is everchanging yet always the same. All I have to do is pull him out, pull him here, into this version of reality.

The coffin cracks as my energy surrounds it. A magical light illuminates the room, getting brighter and brighter. I physically pull the person out as the coffin that surrounded him it shatters into multiple pieces that float into the air. The energy dissipates and the floating bits of the coffin burn a soft blue light until they are nothing.

It is over.

I look towards the person I pulled out of the coffin.

"You are not Souji."

On the ground was a man. He was short, was wearing a yellow raincoat and hat and had a blonde beard.

What?

"What were you doing inside a coffin?" I asked.

He did not reply.

"Are you okay?"

Once again, silence.

I don't think he is awake.

I was so sure it was Souji who was going ot be inside! What does this mean? Is the coffin stuff not restricted to only Souji? Does everyone become a coffin? Does it happen only when the world is right? Souji, John, that lady, everyone else did not see anything wrong with the world as it was. Souji himself thought the idea of the right world as 'weird' when I described it to him. Assuming that this shift between the right world and the wrong world is cyclical, which I dearly hope it isn't, that means everyone becomes a coffin, not only Souji.

But why? Why is this happening? There must be a reason!

I shake my head. That doesn't matter for now. What matters now is the unconscious man lying on the floor. I can't just leave him in the floor, that does not seem comfortable. I should probably do something about him.

I lift the man in my arms easily and went about searching the ship for somewhere to place him.

The boat cabin didn't have much, beyond all those complicated controls that is. However, after going back to the deck, I realize there is a set of stair leading down to a door. I cannot open them with both my hands occupied so I just start carrying the man with only one arm. Still easy. After the door is a room with a bed and some other stuff on it. How convenient!

I lay down the old man on the bed. He is still unconscious.

I should be careful. This person could be friendly like Souji or John but he could also be a badguy. The badguys I met so far did not this weird rubbery yellow outfit, sure, but I can never be too careful, especially after...

Well, I have to be careful with the people I meet is what I mean to say.

This room is a little bit messy. There are a few clothes throw around here and there. Besides the bed the room also had a closet and a nightstand. Above it there is a picture and some magazines. The picture is of the man together with a woman and two little people. The magazines all have pictures of fish.

Well, what now? I guess I could try to drive this boat to... somewhere. I don't know where I am going. I knew I had to leave Yakushima in order to fulfill my missions and escape the badguys but beyond that I am aimless. In the dingy I just kept paddling foward without any goal in mind.

It is scary, not having a path to take.

A grunt. I look at the man and notice that he is moving slightly, waking up.

Uh, I should probably do something, but I don't know what I should do, exactly. I have never done anything like this! I have to think of something before he wakes up! What do people normally say when someone else is waking up?

"Good morning!" I say to him in english. I was not really sure why I was speaking in a language besides japonese, or why english specifically, it just felt right.

The man was still struggling to wake up but eventually he sat on his bed. He seems very disoriented.

"Did you sleep well?" I ask him since that feels like something people normally say.

He got up and looked at me. Surprise showed up in his face as he looked at me.

"I hope you are in a good condition!" See, I am so polite and nice!

The surprise on the man's face died down as he stared at me. He started to quietly grunt to himself in annoyance before looking at me and grunting some more. I don't think he is speaking english, japonese or any language I recognize, but I can still feel the intent behind his word. He is asking who I am, I think.

"My name is Plume of Dusk. Nice to meet you!" Still polite!

The man sighed and then grunted some more while using one of his arms to point at himself. I think he was telling me his name. Too bad I can't understand what it is but I nevertheless nod and smile. He then grunts some more in a questioning matter. My assumption is that he wants to know what happended.

Now how do I put this? If my theory is right then he would not know about being inside the coffin. Should I tell him? He has not attacked or shouted at me so far so he could not be a bad guy. Being honest worked with Souji so maybe I should do the same?

"Well, I was journeying through the ocean when I found your vessel. I asked if anyone was inside and nobody asnwered. After entering I found you inside a coffin. I took you out and carried you here."

He answers with a questioning grunt. I don't know what he is questioning but I'm guessing, if he is the same as Souji, that it is about the coffin.

"You were inside a coffin but do not worry, I got you out!" I assure him.

He speaks more in an understanding tone and then starts to climb up the stairs.

Wait, is that it? I thought he would freak out more. Souji had a whole panic frenzy when I first met him and this man just goes 'okay' and continues as usual? Perhaps he does know something about it!

"Excuse me, sir, but do you know why you were inside a coffin?"

He grunts negatively. Well, so much for that.

I follow him upstairs into the ship's open area. The man looks at the sky and stands still. His face has an expression of shock and worry. He makes a few grunts of distress. He faces different directions, as if he merely looked at it at another angle would undo what happend to the world. He talks more and even thought I cannot understand the words themselves I can decipher their meaning very clearly. "What happend to the world?"

Does he not like it? How? I cannot comprehend it. This is how the world was supposed to be! Shouldn't he be happy like I was?

The way he is reacting, how he is scared of the world and does not understand what is happening. It reminds me of myself.

"Hey." I try to get his attention and he turns to me "The world is... not in the way you are used too, but, well..." I don't know what to say. I don't want him to be scared but I have no idea of what to say.

"I am here and I can explain what I know to you. I don't undestand what is going on much, but I can promise to try and help you!" I say and part of me already regrets it. It is not very good. What if it does not work? What if it does not make him feel better about the world that is clearly causing him distress?

The man look at me and seemed to calm a bit, but there was still worry present in his face. He really did not like this world. I cannot understand why, but I can understand how this can be.

So I told him what I knew. About how I believed that the world was shifting between these two states. I told him about the changing skies, ocean and the Moon. I described to him how people transformed into coffins. I also told him how I was not sure about any of this and I was just trying my best to understand. I didn't really get it either.

He listened to my explanation. Occasionally he would interrupt me to make questioning grunts about the hows and whys of things, questions I could not answer.

The man questions me again. Why was I on his boat?

"I am running away." I told him.

Silence.

With a wave of his hand he convinces me to follow him into the cabin. There he grabs a thermos and a cup that I did not see were there before. After pouring a black liquid into the cup he offers it to me.

I grab the cup and then stare at it. "Uh, what I am suppose to do with this?"

The man talked some more and made some demostrative motions. Was he telling me to drink it?

I drank it and a very bitter taste filled my mouth, but beneath it there was something good, an earthly taste that that was very interesting. Huh, not so bad for the very first thing I have ever drank. It is nice.

He talked some more. Did I like it? Did it make me feel better?

"Yes. Very bitter but I like it."

A question. Do I have anywhere to go?

"No. Not really." I answer the truth.

Another question. Do I have anyone to go to?

I hesitate to answer. I had Souji and John to help me, but I don't know where they are or where they live. I do not know if they are even okay. Regret fills my mind. Maybe I should have stayed in Yakoshima and looked for them. After meanie attacked me I was done with that island and felt the need to leave, but maybe I should have helped them.

Even if I am not there they are okay, right? The badguys were after me, not them. They should be fine, even if I have no idea where they are. The probably have left the island already.

I am taken out of my thoughts by another one of the man's questions. Do I want him to take me anywhere?

I do not know how to answer. I left Yakushima because I had to and I knew my mission was not there, but I did not have any destination in mind.

Yet another question. Do I want to come with him?

I look at him. He seems honest. Reminded me of Souji in a way, even though they do not look or sound alike.

Did I want to go with him?

"I have nowhere else to go. I can come with you."

And so I did.


	6. Arrival

I drank more of the coffee that the man gave me as I looked into the horizon. I learned that was his name was Yellowtail after he wrote it down.

My theory was right. The world was cyclical. I was not there to witness it this time since I was in the bedroom downstairs, but it happended all the same. The wrong world replaced the right one.

It has been nearly a day since then. Yellowtail has been driving the boat on his own for most of the time. For such a complex bank of consoles, driving it looks remarkably simple. He just turned it on and then used the big wheel thing to turn the boat around.

The sun was starting to ascend once again on the horizon, bringing with it a tint of orange upon the sky and causing the many small lights to recede.

Yellowtail's boat was fast. Very fast, my paddle-powered dingy could never hope to compete. He told me that he used the boat mostly for fishing but that right now he was doing a favor to one of his friends from the past. Or that is what I think anyway, the explanation was kinda confusing.

As for me, I did mostly nothing through the day, and let me tell you that doing nothing can be quite amazing! I brought the dingy on board and helped YellowtaIl drive the ship when he asked for help with something but other than that I did nothing productive. I stared into the horizon, sleept in THE bed and read fishing magazines. Who would have thought there are so many different ways to catch a fish? And the article on net techniques were rather interesting.

Not having to think or worry. There were no badguys, running away or looking for answers. I just did nothing and it was great. An entire day of nothing was just what I needed.

I heard Yellowtail call me. I walked besides him and saw in the distance a city. It stood upon a peninsula leading into a large hill with a lighthouse on top. Sitting upon the hill was an enourmous statue. It was in a degraded state yet that did not stop it from exuberating wonder. It was by far the biggest building in the city! I want to go there!

Yellowtail lead the boat towards the side peninsula, into the city docks. As he approached he once again called me and pointed at a rope thingy near the boat's steering wheel.

Was I suppose to pull it?

I do so and a loud nose spreads across the entire area. I did that? I can't help but laught. It was fun! I do it again and once again the sound obeys my commands.

Yellowtail continue to steer the boat towards the dock and starts to slow down. Once navegating it he stops near a wooden pier, much bigger than the one I met Souji on. He quickly runs outside and crossed into the pier. There was a small boy which he hugged.

That boy was familiar. He was the smallest person in that photo. That must be... his son? Yeah, his son. Yellowtail must be his father.

Yellowtail calls me and presents his son to me. He is so, so...

"Cute!" I squeal.

He was smaller than anyone I have met and had such cute little checks and puff hair! The stoic smile in his face only made him cuter.

Yellowfish was smiling and confirmed what I already knew. This was indeed his child.

Yellowtail grabbed the child and carried him on his shoulders. We started walking across the boardwalk in the city. There were many shops here, more so than in Bichibyu Town. In the window of one of the shops was a large drawing of the city from an aerial view and the words "Welcome to Beach City!" written on colorful letters.

While there were many shops one thing that caught my eye was how they were damaged. There are a few broken walls and windows. Shards of some sort of pink crystal were violently embedded into the floor. There were very few people in the streets here, some of which carried hammers and wooden planks as they fixed the damage. Unlike the rude folk of Bichibyu, they did not gawk at me as I walked through.

Some time later we leave the shops behind us and enter streets with houses on both sides. We stop in the front of a green house that did not seem much different than the houses near it apart from the purple tarp covering the garage door.

We got inside and Yellowfish yelled at someone inside. From the room came another person. She was tall and had blonde hair. I could clearly see the semblance to Yellowtail's son.

"Oh, there he is. I woke up and he wasn't in his bed so I imagined he was waiting for you at the docks. This little troublemaker gave me quite the worry." she said with a smile on her face. "Welcome home, sailor. How was your trip?"

He responded and then pointed at me.

"And who are you?" she asked me.

"I am Plume of Dusk. A pleasure to meet you!" I still am very polite.

"I am Vidalia. Nice to meet you too."

After that introduction she brought me to their living room. Vidalia carried his son, 'Onion' she told me, upstairs and then went to the kitchen with Yellowtail to talk or something, they did not really say what. Meanwhile she gave me a cup of tea for me to drink. It was very watery and I did not like it as much as I did coffe, but it was still nice. Their house was pleasent and the couch was confortable.

On the coffe table there was a newspaper. The Delmarvan Daily, April 9th 2009 edition. There multiple stories on the frontpage, the headline being about something regarding a delmarvan senator. I was about to stop looking when I caught a glimpse of something in the side of the page. MULTIPLE INJURED IN 'MONSTER ATTACK' ON JAPONESE ISLAND.

"Huh?" I grab the newspaper and start reading it.

Yesterday at Bichibyu Town on Yakushima Island, a japonese tourist hotspot, over a dozen people were injured on what witness are calling a 'monster attack'. The town was visited by a trail of destruction caused by, according to witness' acounts, a 'large black walking mass with clawed arms and no face'. This creature supposedly destroyed multiple buildings, assaulted the residents and the left shortly after.

Japonese authorities have sealed off the town and have yet to make a comment on the situation. The repor-

"Plume, dear?" I look up and see Vidalia and Yellowtail on the room. They also had tea cups on their hands. When did they enter here?

"Did you like the tea?" she asked.

"I preferred coffe." I tell her.

"Oh." she said. "Well, I will remember that for next time."

"Thanks." I reply, politely. Some silence hanged in the air before she talked again.

"So, me and Yellowtail talked and we decided to allow you to stay with us until you find somewhere to go. Do you have any family or friends that can help you?"

I do not have any family, do I? I never thought about it but I am sure that is the case. I am not like them. I do not have a father or a mother, that is the truth that I know to be. And Souji and John, I did not knew where they were. They could be anywhere. How would I contact them? How would I find them?

"I..." I start speaking "I had a couple of people who helped me before, but I don't know where they are, or how to find them."

"Do you have any sort of document or anything?"

"Uh... no?"

"I see. Well, you can stay here with us until you figure things out." she says with a warmth in her voice.

They were nice but should I stay here? I do not know.

"Cheer up, dear!" Vidalia said. "We will make sure you like it here. I can show you around." she talked with a comforting smile.

Maybe staying here would not be so bad.

"Now." She said as she finished her tea. "Would you like to eat the tea bag?"

Wait, those things are edible?


	7. An Introduction to Beach City, Lighthouse Troubles and Light

I ate the tea bag as we finished another couple cups of tea. It tasted funny, like tea except not watery which made it better. Vidalia did not like them so she gave hers to me. It's weird, I have this vague feeling that these things are not suppose to be eaten but they taste so good!

Yellowtail and Onion, that's the name of the younger child, had already gone upstairs so it was just me and Vidalia on the living room. We are waiting for her older son. He was going to something called a school soon and she said I should wait a bit to meet him. She thought it was a good idea since I was going to be living on their house for a while.

"He enjoys music a fair deal. I used to be a rocker girl in my younger years if you can believe that. I was a true rebel. Still am! Just a more responsible one." There is a smile on her face as she says that. It seems she was rather found of the subject.

I did not know what to talk to her about but thankfully she did most of the talking. I think she was doing it knowing that I did not want to talk. If that is the case then it is very thoughtful of her.

I hear footsteps going down the stair and look to see who it is. Videlia's son is a teenager, tall and blonde, just like his mother. He was wearing orange pants and a light blue jacket and had a backpack over one of his shoulders.

"Mom, who is she?" he asks in a nonchalant voice

"She is Plume of Dusk. She is going to be living with us for a while. Why don't you say hello?"

"Sup. You have a very interesting name." He says.

"Uh... thanks." I reply.

"Mine's Sour Cream. Nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you too."

Silence follwed after that.

"Why don't you two get to know each other better while I make breakfast." Vidalia suggested before getting up and heading for the kitchen.

"Okay." He then sits next to me on the couch.

More silence.

"So..." he starts "You are going to live with us, huh?"

"For a while, yes." I reply

"That's cool. So why are you going to stay with us?"

"Oh..." Why am I finding it awkard to answer these questions? First with Vedalia and now him. "I was running away and didn't have anywhere to stay."

"Oh, that's heavy." he says, his voice not as nonchalant as before.

"Heavy? What does weight have to do with anything?" It does not make sense.

"It's not literal. It just means it's heavy cause the weight of it is dragging you down, or something."

"Oh. In that case, I guess it is." Heavy indeed.

"So, are you going to school or not? I can't really tell your age."

"What is school?" Another vague feeling of familiarity-but-not-quite comes with the word.

"It's a place where society shapes the youth to conform. They also teach important stuff like math and the environment and stuff. How come you don't what school is?"

"I just don't know." Why is it some things I just know while some other I do not?

"That is weird. Your parents must be pretty wild." he concludes.

I don't have parents I almost reply but then I decide agaist it. I do not know if that is somehting I want to talk about.

That's when Vidalia calls the both of us. We answer her calls by heading into to the kitchen where we were greeted by the amazing smell of something delicious! In a table there are two plates with some strips of brown stuff and some mushed yellow stuff. We sit down at the chairs. He picks up the little metal sticks next to the place and use to cut the food and shove into his mouth so I follow suit. I take some of the yellow mush with a slice of the brown to my mouth and...

Bliss!

The crunchiness! The taste! The flavory tender juice of goodness as I munch of it! It's amazing!

I immediatly try to get as much of this goodness into my mouth as I can. I have to get more of this!

"Looks like someone is really enjoying my cooking." Vidalia says giggling.

"I enjoy your cooking too, mom." Sour Cream tells her, I can sense some embarassement in his otherwise pretty calm voice. That was actually kinda cute.

I continue to enjoy this ambrosia of joy, tasting how amazing it is with every bite. I love eating! Even more than destroying stuff! Maybe. It has been some time I last destroyed stuff though. Oh, I have to find stuff to destroy! What is very destructible and would not be missed? I do not know much about this town to answer this. But I can destroy stuff later. Right now I must take another bite of this goodness!

"I will be going upstairs, but if you need anything Plume then just call me, okay dear?" she says.

"Actually, I was thinking of showing her around town. There should be enough time." Sour Cream adds.

"Oh! Is there any place nearby where I can destroy stuff? Those stores seemed interesting. And the big woman statue! You have to show it to me!" I tell them. I can barely wait!

"Just don't be late for school." Vidalia says as she leaves.

After finishing my meal and being sad I can't have more, we both leave the kitchen. I follow Sour Cream outside into the sunlit streets. The sky was going from orange to blue and the little lights are all gone completely. The Sun was once again assaulting me with it's unnerving blinding shine.

"C'mon, I'll show you around." he says and I follow him.

We walk through the streets and reach the boardwalk. There were more people than before but not that many. I could see more young people with backpacks like Sour Cream. Two of them, one a black-skinned girl with shorts, a jacket and black hair and the other a young man with red jacket, jeans and sunglasses, started approaching us.

"Sup." sunglasses said.

"Heya there. Who is this new girl?" asks the girl.

"I am Plume of Dusk." I tell them.

"Cool." sunglasses told me. I can't help but smile at that. "Very unique. I like it. Mine's Buck Dewey."

"I'm Jenny." says the girl.

Sour Cream steps fowards and say "Plume of Dusk is going to live in my house for a while so I was showing her around."

"Hospitality is cool." sunglasses said.

"Not like like is much to see here in Beach City." Jenny said. "Just a bunch of old shops, an arcade and a theme park from when our parents were our age. I guess there is the 'underground' fighting ring, but if everyone knows about it is it really underground?"

"And that Purple Puma always wins. Took the fun out of it." Sour Cream adds to what she said.

"Wait." I interrupt "But what about the giant woman statue? Isn't that a great place to visit?" It certaintly doesn't look boring!

"Nah." Sour Cream responded. "It's private propety and a angry lady told us to no hang out there cause it's dangerous."

"Hah, she didn't stop us from sneaking in there when we were kids." Jenny said and then giggled a bit.

"It was a nice cave." sunglasses commented. There was a cave? I don't remember seeing any from the boat.

"We should show her around before the school bus arrives." Sour Cream reminds everyone of what we were doing.

So they showed me around the boardwalk. There were many shops but, unlike what they said, I found them quite interesting. There was a shop bu the name of Fish Stew Pizza where they sold a food called pizza! With fish on it, I assume. If Vidalia's cooking was good then this stuff must be pretty amazing as well. Apparently Jenny actually lives there! "It must be pretty good to live in such a place!"

"Nah, the taste of pizza gets old after a while." she says, clearly not knowing what she is speaking of.

There also was a fry shop named Beach Citywalk Fries, which was another kind of food that I must try. So many different things, so many options! So much food!

They also talked about a couple of places called Funland Arcade and Beach City Funland, which where establishments you could go to specifically have fun. I don't get what they were talking about, Beach City clearly seems amazing!

"I remember spending all of my money at Funland when I was younger, but now I spend it on more important stuff like rave equipment. I already beat all the G's in there like three million times, anyway." Sour Cream told all of us.

Money? A currency in which you exchange for goods and/or services? "Do I need money to enjoy all of this?" I ask to no one in particular.

Jenny answers that for me "Uh, yeah, we just don't give pizzas for free and Smiley sure is stingy."

"No!" I scream into the void. "I do not have money! How can I enjoy pizzas and fries without money!" That is truly unfair!

"That's capitalism." sunglasses commented.

"You're going to have to find a job like me. Ugh, taking care of the shop is so boring, but at least my parents pay me for it." Jenny said.

Well, that is a real bummer. How tragic, to be so close to the wonderful world of food and entertainment only to be denied it! I will have to find some way to gain money if I want to do all of this.

"Sigh, this sucks." I say.

"Hang in there. You will get a job eventually." sunglasses tells me.

Jenny coughs to call our attention. "I would love to stay and talk, but we have to get going soon."

"Tch." Sour Cream utters bitterly. "Let's just skip class. Why does a fisherman need to know physics anyway?"

"Here we go again." Jenny laments.

"School is important to our future." sunglasses tells them as they start to walk away towards the streets. I guess Sour Cream did not really meant it.

They all say their goodbyes and start heading away towards school as one big group. I wonder how school is like. I looked at the group for one last time before the turned at the street. The sound of their conversation slowly faded away.

"What were you doing in the boardwalk so early anyway? You don't live here."

"I was just chilling."

Well, now what?

If I can't enjoy what all these shops could give me I should at least destroy some stuff. Wait, Sour Cream forgot to show me anywhere that I can go for destruction! "Argh! This keeps getting worse!"

Fine. I can't explore the shops, I can't destroy stuff. So what should I do? That big woman statue still sounds interesting but they did say there is an angry lady there. I don't want to deal with angry people right now, maybe later.

Looking around is when I notice the lighthouse on top of the hill. There are no people near it and it is not turned on. Is it also private property? If that place is empty then I could maybe, I dunno, practice my powers. There is alot of things about them I still do not know. Besides, it would distract me from my cruel fate.

I climb my way to the lighthouse. It's not very far or steep. This hill is the same one with the statue on it so istead of immediatly trying to enter the lighthouse I walk past around it and try to get a better look.

The beautiful unmoving stone lady rested her head at the top of the hill near where I was standing. I tried to look down in order to get a better view of her but from the angle I was on it was difficult. I could really only see the locks of her hair and the weird mask thing she was wearing, as well as her multiple arms to her side, some of which had deteriorated to the point of breaking and falling off. Her torso was completely out of my field of vision.

No, this won't do. If I want to see her I should do so from a better angle.

I wonder where is that cave sunglasses mentioned is. I can't see it from here.

I sigh and start going back to the lighthouse. I'll go down there and get a proper look later.

The door to the lighthouse was not locked so I was able to get in pretty easily. There was a layer of dust covering the walls and the floor so maybe this place is abandoned? After the entrance there is a stairway leading upwards. I decide to go up because I had enough of dark, dust rooms.

Once I reach the top I find myself in a large circular room. The wall with faded paint, allowing me to see the bricks in some spaces and above it there is a window covering the entire circumference of the room. In the middle, a large object taller and wider than I am stood, which I'm guessing is the light of the lighthouse although it is turned off. There is also a very large amount of furniture. There were cabinets, boxes, barrels, papers and other weird itens spread around the room with very little organization. A desk with a chair sat near one of the walls. There is also a blackboard with a bunch of paper taped into it, including a big one that reads "SNAKE PEOPLE".

Weird place. If it is this messy and dusty then it must be abandoned just like the lab was, which is nice since I can practice my powers without rude people staring at me.

I remain still and look inwards. This is what I have done everytime I had to call upon my power. It was starting to feel natural, even.

"Kouha." and there it goes. The light hits the wall, casuing the degraded painting to come off.

I wonder if I can make it stronger. If meanie shows up again I need something strong enough that will make her regret what she did.

I try the same routine except this time I force the energy to stay longer in my hands. It congregates into my hand yet I force it to keep going, for more energy to leave my being and go into my fists. It is starting to strain me and to burn my hand. Some of the energy starts to refuse my will and escapes my grasp. I can't hold it any longer, so I throw it to the wall.

I can't do it, not yet anyway. If only I could hold on to that energy longer then maybe. I have to find a way to make the energy leave my rock and gather into my fists at a faster rate too, but how? Do I just will it to go faster and to hold more energy? How would I even do that?

Once again I look upon the energy within me, once more I command it to gather upon my fists. I repeat the same action as before, causing the bricks in the wall I was using as a target to crack.

It felt marginally stronger than before, I think. Maybe if I keep practicing I can improve how much energy I can handle. I just have to keep using Kouha until I get better, I guess.

I wonder how many things here I can destroy with Kouha?

\----------------------------------------------------------------

"Kouha!" I say again and watch as the energy slams into the barrel, shattered bits of wood flying off with the impact as the barrel was no more. The remains of it were moved by the collision and hit the wall with a loud sound, all the meanwhile the residual light of the energy gave everything a most magnificant shine. Little shards of wood were still falling from the heights they achieved for some seconds after, making with them a nice little tune as they hit the ground.

I smile while sitting down on the chair to rest. I have been kouhing things for a few hours. I was definitely getting better at it, although for now I was just exhausted. I never felt this tired before. The more energy I used from my rock to form Kouhas, the more drained I felt.

That barrel was merely one of the many things in this room I destroyed. Seeing they move violently and shatter as my most furious pure light hit them brough a carthasis that I missed. It brought me to simpler times, where punching windows were the biggest of my concern.

Alright, just one more Kouha then I will stop.

I pulled the energy from within, more than I could before. My reverses were almost depleted, but there was still enough for a few more. I gathered them quickly in one of my arms, but then I had an impulse. I gathered them in both of my arms istead. I got up from the chair and breathed deeply.

I spun. My hair followed my movements, forming a white swirl around me. I extended my arms and released the energy for one last time.

"Makouha."

The energy flies off to every direction and hit different surfaces, causing a multitude of flashes of light to shine upon the room. Sounds could be heard as it impacted anything that remained, cutting the snake people blackboard in half and causing damage to the walls that surrounded this room. Bits of bricks were detached as the light impacted them. I countinue to spin and I do not hold back my laughter. This feels great! It is so liberating!

As I stop, the combination of dizziness and fatigue cause me to collapse upon the chair.

I can only stare in wonder at my handiwork. The room was trashed, more so than before. There are splinters of wood and pieces of paper all over the floor. What I did was art!

I close my eyes in contentment and look within. What little reserves I had left were gone with that last stunt of mine, not that I mind. I found out that with some rest they would slowly rise again.

I stand still and think of nothing, just feeling the energy within me to slowly build up.

That energy that slowly fills me. It is connected to a large grid. I recognize that grid. Where did I see it before? Oh, right! It was when I was pulling Yellowtail out of his coffin. I saw it then, a large ocean of interconnect lights. There must have been millions of them, maybe even billions! These lights were constantly transmitting to one another in a beautiful harmony of chaos. Thoughts, ideas and concepts shared between all of them in an never-ending shift.

I could feel these lights. Some of them were near. It was just a very small amount compared to all of them, yet they felt impressive all the same. Their sensation came from Beach City, conglomerated in this collection of shops and houses surrounded by the countryside. Although, there was a single light connected to this vast sea of information that came from the opposite direction, from the beach beyond the statue.

My physical senses no longer existed, only the near infinite sea of wonder. I could get lost in this place so easily. So many lights, alive and with emotion. All of them connected to the ocean... except, not really?

I did not notice them at first since they got overshadowed by the amazing connections of the sea of lights, but there other presences here. They were not connected to the sea of light, or rather, most of them were not and the very, very few who were had a much weaker link. Unlike the other souls, these were not a part of the grand sea of lights, but outsiders. They did not belong here.

So many of these weird souls were so near, too! How did I miss this? There were so many beneath me, somehow inside this cliff. Maybe inside the cave sunglasses mentioned?

There was another of these outsider soul that was eve nearer. Was it inside the lighthouse? I thought I was alone!

I open my eyes and stand up. I do not trust it. I prepare to move at moment, waiting for the attack to react, yet the stillness only streches on.

A sound behind me. I turn back and see nothing. Where is it?

Another sound. The source is the very chair I was sitting upon, it was dragging itself across the floor. What?

The chair launches fowards towards me but I dodge out of the way.

There is no impact sound. I look back and see the chair floating in the air. Other objects in the room start to join it. Bits of wood, pieces of bricks, they start floating together with the chair in the air.

My energy reserves restored a bit from the meditation I just did, but they were not nearly full.

Images of claws and bullets comes to my mind.

It won't happen again. I will not allow!

Thoughts rush through my head as the objects continued to gather in the air.

I could not let that thing hurt me, but the problem was that I have no idea what it is. It was gathering the various objects, presumably to use as projectiles, but where was it? I knew that it was inside this building. When I was in a transe, searching through the sea of lights, I noticed that it was near here. Was it hiding? How could it control the objects like that. The powers it had did not make sense, just-

The chair flew towards me. There was no build up to it, just brutal speed. I step to the side in an attempt to escape and succeed in protecting my center mass, but not so much my arm, though. The wooden chair shatters in half as it slams through my forearm. The pain was there but small and muted. It will not stop me.

Sloppy. I was too distracted. I need to focus.

I run to the side. I can not stay still and give that thing another opportunity to hurt me. As I move a loud thunderous sound of a multitude of impacts follow behind me as the thing launches its projectiles towards me.

I jump fowards, dodging most of them. Some of them still hit my back, but they do very little.

I need to do something, but what?

The room is small and I am quite the fast runner. I already completed my first lap around it and returned to where I was. The debris that was thrown at me is starting to move again, including the remains of the chair.

I can not keep up this forever. I need to find where this thing is hiding.

I continue to run. I try to sprint in a inconsistent way to keep the bits of weaponized wood from hitting me. It somewhat works.

I sense its presence when I was in a trance, lost in my observations of the sea of lights. Maybe if I could enter that state again I would be able to find it and deal with it. But how to do that while running and dogding?

The solution appears before me. I stop running and make a 90 degree turn towards the door leading to the stairs. The best way to not get hit in this vortex of madness is to not be inside of it. After crossing the doorway into the stairs I turn and close the door. The sound of smashing wood can be heard as it trashed the already fragile door. Bits of the door broke under the relentless barrage. I hold back a hiss as some of the projectiles go through the door and hit me, causing little flashes of pain to flair up in my body.

Nope, it is a lost cause. I stop holding the door in place and run down the stairs.

As I run down I close I close my eyes and try to get back to that state of mind in which I saw the lights.

I could see it. It was fuzzy and unfocused, but I did not need to see it all. I only needed the soul that is attacking me. It was here, surrounding me. I can feel its energy connect to the walls, to the stairs, the pipes and the walls. Its tendrils of influence extending to control the objects that tried to follow me.

No, the soul was surrounding me, its influence was. The soul itself was located deeper. Was it underground?

The soul. It is angry... and scared?

I open my eyes and nearly avoid hitting the wall. Huh, maybe running down stairs with your eyes closed is not a good idea. Still, I know where the thing attacking me is; underground.

Did it think it could hide from me? Just attack me and cause me pain from a safe distance?

I reach the ground floor of the lighthouse. The door towards the exit is there. I can just leave this place and be free from the thing's influence. I do not think it would be able to attack me outside. But I could also try to find a way underground and deal with this problem directly. I do not want to run.

As I ponder what to do next the ground beneath my feet open up. I can feel myself falling into the ominous red hole. My torso was already half-deep when I grab the ledge. I start to pull myself up when I feel something grab my leg and starts pulling me down. I resist its attempt by using the floor to push myself up. I am winning in the struggle to free myself.

That's when the ledge I was holding onto cracked.

I fell across a red tunnel. The red light surrounded me, causing a strong sensation of disorientation. I lose sense of my surroundings when something hits me.

Pain flairs up on my back as my fall is redirected by a great force. There is more sound of shattering wood. I fall onto the floor, finally, and stop moving.

I get onto my knees.

"Ughh." I can not help but say.

Where am I?

I look around and notice I am in a dark circular room. There are no doors or windows and the walls were made out of wooden planks. I must be on the basement. On the wall there is a pulsating veiny mass that bulged out of the walls itself. The word LARS is inscribed upon its grotesque surface in bright glowing red. What does that even mean?

I get up and close my eyes, searching for the soul. I can feel it behind the grotesque mass.

"So that is where you are hiding, huh?" I say to the thing.

The room starting shaking and the deafening noise of creaking wood was louder than everything else. The mass starts to open up, forming a massive gaping mouth on the wall.

What a grotesque, awful thing. A disturbing soul that is not connected to the sea of lights. An outsider. An enemy that tried to hurt me and make me feel pain. A burning feeling build up inside of me like I never felt before.

I could end this. It would not be hard, really. I could sense through that thing's soul that just one well placed attack would result in its demise.

I charge my Kouha.

It roared at me. The room does not have any objects inside of it so it istead broke the planks off the wall to throw at me. It was not as precise and brutally quick as before, no, instead it threw them at me in such a sloppy manner. Its aim was far worse than before, but it did compensated by throwing so many at once. Nevertheless, dodging them is easy. The projectiles are predictable and weak, unlike before.

It was rushed, sloppy... desperate.

The energy in my hands finished gathering. Just one hand movement and a muttered word would be enough to finally terminate this threat. This horror. This enemy. This thing.

It would be so easy. So very easy. It is not even fighting back as hard anymore, as if it has accepted its fate.

So easy.

So why could I not do it?

There was something nagging at me in the back of my head. Something stopping me from launching the energy in my hand. From making this very simple hand movement.

The room was quiet. The grotesque mouth stopped.

Just do it, Plume of Dusk. Do the thing. You have done it so many times already, why is it hard now?  
A shadow looms over me. Lifting my face I see her. She grabs me by my chest, her claws sinking into my skin.  
For a few moments we stood there.

I close my eyes. Its souls is still there, just as before. I pay attention to it, really pay attention to it.

It is filled with fear, anticipation and... relief. Relief from what? Why would it feel relief? There is nothing to feel relief about... about...  
I release the energy into the air. The brigh light of Kouha dissipates into nothing.

It does not want to continue anymore. Something about that disturbs me.

Why would it not want to continue?

It should not want that!

It should not feel relief about that!

She should want to continue!

This is not right! I can't do this to her! I have to find a way so that this does not end like that! She should not feel like that and I will make sure she knows that! I have to say something to her, find a way to resolve this conflict without ending in either of us getting hurt anymore.

"My name is Plume of Dusk. Why the attack!? Was it for the chairs or did I practice in the wrong place or what?" I ask without bothering to hide the desperation in my voice.

She roared in response, but unlike before it was not vicious. It was a meek roar. I could not feel the same anger as before. It had no energy on it.

"I just want to know why you did that..." I told her.

She did not reply.

I close my eyes and look at her soul. She was so tired. She is stuck in this place without control. Her own mind betrays her. She is scared, angry, confused and in pain. She is suffering. She has been suffering for so long, far longer than I have been here.

She is scared of me. This place is her body now, and I attacked it while I was training. How reckless of me! I was the one who attacked her first! She has been suffering for so long and then I attack her. She was scared and confused so she fought back. She did not want to feel more pain than she has already been feeling for so, so long.

"You suffered alot, haven't you?"

In her soul I felt surprise, and a small glimmer of hope.

"I am sorry I attacked you. I didn't knew."

She has went through so much. I do not know exactly what she went through, but nevertheless I can feel how much she wants to be free from this torment.

"How can I help you be free?"

Her soul shined with hope. It was still murked in a sea of confusing emotions, fear and anger scrambled in a way that is unnatural, but the hope was there nonetheless.

She moved her 'mouth' and brought herself closer to me. I open my eyes and see embedded upon the concrete a large blue crystal. Was I suppose to take it?

The soul egged me on. I guess she found out I could feel her somehow. She was not sure how but I do not think she particularly cares. She only wants to be free.

I move towards the crystal slowly, one step at a time. I do not want for her to feel more fear than she already has. She is feeling anxious and afraid, yet she continues to make herself vulnerable to me so I can help her. How brave she is.

I reach for the crystal and try to pull it. The room shakes, I can sense pain through her soul.

"I'm sorry." I say before completely pulling the crystal from the concrete at once. The room shakes violently but then stops completely. I could no longer feel her influence over the building. She was free.

I look at the gem that I am holding in my hands. It is very big for a gemstone, I think. I am no expert.

I look around me. The room was dark without the red light from before but that is no problem. I glow my surrounding and look for a way out. I quickly find a vertical ladder that leads to the ground floor of the lighthouse. The Sun was higher in the blue sky since a few hours have passed. The idea of a moving Sun and a blue sky is something I was getting used to by now, but the feeling of fear I first felt is something I still remember.

I walk towards the edge of the cliff. The wind was fiery now, my hair flowed at the strong gusts. The ocean was still there, beautiful in its own sinister yet nevertheless impressive way.

I look at the gem again. She is unconscious now.

She is not so different from me, is she?

"I am going to find a way to help you."

I nodded to myself.

"Then after we can watch the ocean together!"

It was in that moment that a deep shade of red covered everything. I look upwards and see the Sun shining an intense dark red light upon the sky in such a mesmerizing manner. In the distance the ocean was back to the red color that is right, but unlike before it was now very visible due to the intense red light of the Sun, revealing its hypnotizing waves. It is truly a breathtaking sight.

"I promise."


	8. Statues & New Introductions and Old Junk

It is interesting how the right time showed up during the day. I was so used to it being at night, with full view of the Moon up above, that I never knew how the Sun looked in its natural state. I wonder why the right time came now. Should it not be during the night? How inconsistent! I cannot learn how it works if the rules are constantly changing!

I sigh and look over the edge of the cliff, toward the statue's head.

Hmm, since now is the right time, does that mean that the angry lady that guards the statue is a coffin? If was to go visit it she would not even notice, right?

I smile and step back.

"Hold on tight, Light, and watch my graceful landing!"

I run fowards and jump. I no longer have anything holding me in place. The sand below is approaching in an accelerating speed. I flex my legs and prepare for the landing. They impact the sand and cause a cloud of beige to rise into the air, some of it entering my mouth! I cough, trying to get it out of my throat, but it does not work and it only makes me enter a coughing fit on instinct. Some moments later, after the sand already settled upon the ground again, I finally stop coughing.

So much for my graceful landing...

I look down upon Light, whom I was still holding in my arms.

"You didn't saw that."

I gaze upon the giant woman statue and it is terrific! Amazing! Glorious! Kinda broken, actually. It looks like she was suppose to have six arms but some of them are missing. The stone surface contains a generous amounts of cracks and moss, revealing the statue's old age. Nevertheless, she remains an impressive feat of architecture, towering over me. It is difficult to read the expression of the lady, especially since she is depicted using some sort of maks, bu it does give me an impression of serenity and wisdom. As if she is unbothered by the confusion and pain of the world around her, of the fear she feels towards the future. She remains calm in spite of all that and obtains complete serenity. Amist chaos and uncertainty, she finds peace and contentment.

Or maybe I am thinking too much about it and it is just a pretty giant woman statue.

"She looks neat, doesn't she?"

My gaze descended upon the the lower parts of the statue where she held something with her lower set of arms. It was...

"A house?"

It looks like a completely regular suburban house, except it was not located in the suburbs but on the hands of a giant statue, on top of small sand hill. This must be the place where the angry lady Sour Cream and his friends mentioned lives. It is an interesting place to live, for sure.

I wonder what it is like inside. How would the house of someone that lives in the shadow of such a majestic piece of art be like?

No, I probably should not go inside without her permission... but then again, she is a coffin right now, isn't she? She will not even notice!

I skip towards the house, feeling the soft sand upon my feet. It was more soft and smooth compared to the sand at Yakushima Island.

After climbing the sand hill I ascend the wooden stairs into the porch of the house. It was made out of wooden planks that had a whitish red tonality to it.

The front door had glass panes in it that allowed me to see through. The inside reminds me of Vidalia's house, although that is probably because it is the only other house I have been to. To the right there is a kitchen area with counters, chairs, drawers, a frigde and the whole thing. Towards the left there is a living room area with a fireplace and a couch, although most of it was outside of my line of sight due to a staircase that lead to a small elevated area. There was no walls separating the rooms which seemed kinda weird. What was weirder, though, was the cave at the back of the house. It had a rough stone texture to it that felt anachronistic to the rest of the dwelling and contained a raised circular plataform as well as a very elegantly designed door with a star symbol.

Weird place. I want to go inside!

I rotate the door handle and it opens right away. No need for keys, I guess.

I immediately walk past the normal room into the cave at the back, which was by far the most interesting thing in this place. Was this the cave that they mentioned?

The circular platform was smooth unlike the stoney surface surrounding it. It was impressive for what it was. I stood on top of it and, wow! It sends some sort of tingling sensation in my rock! It is not that potent a feeling, but it is there nonetheless. Is this some sort of new power?

I focus on the tingling sensation and try to activate it, to no avail. Nothing happens, even though I feel it shoud.

What is this plataform? Why is it making my rock tingle? This could be a clue about the truth behind what I am! How is this connected to everything? Why here out of all places? There were alot of souls like Lighthouse within this mountain last time I checked. Isn't kinda random that the first city I visit after leaving Yakushima is the one that has these weird souls, unless they are more common than I thought. Talking about Light, she is really like me, isn't she? Not only in the sense of what she went through, but literally like me. Her soul is within a rock that projected her will upon the world. But also, unlike me, she is disconnected from the sea of lights

"What are we, Lighthouse?"

She did not reply of course, she was not conscious. I wonder if she is in a cloudy space like I was? No, I do not think so. There is something corrupting her, preventing her from thinking clearly. Does that mean that the other souls in here are tormented like her? If so, then going further inside might be very, very dangerous.

I close my eyes and use my soul view to look further inside. There is indeed an absurd quantity of disconnected and corrupted souls further inside, although they seemed to be uncounciouss as well. If they are not awake then maybe it is not as dangerous, but I should still procede with caution. Who knows what is beyond this suspicious and elegant star door? I should try to- huh?

I open my eyes and turn around, looking back towards the sofa. In the area that was my blindspot when I looked through the door glass there was three figures. One coffin is standing near the sofa near to two ummoving person-sized statues that are sitting down. The coffin must be the angry lady, I am guessing.

The statues are very weird. They depict two people, one of them was tall and thin, had pale skin and beige hair and was wearing a ligh blue short dress with a small greenish yellow star. She had some sort of fancy circle on her forehead. The other statue was even taller although she was not as thin. She had purple skin and large square-like dark afro hair. She was wearing a tight blakc and purple one suit with a stary design.

"This lady really likes her stars, huh?" I ask nobody in particular.

The statues are really interesting in how they looked, though. They have a grainy static aspect to them, like a slightly faded hologram, almost as if they are not really here. They were nice to look at, I suppose, but I fell like there is something more to them.

Their skin is not a normal color, like mine. At the back of my mind I knew that cyan is not a normal skin color to have the moment I first looked upon them. By itself that might not have raised suspicion, but considering where I am and what surrounds me I cannot help but think that it must be somehow connected to all of this.

So this lady lives inside a house under a giant woman statue. Near her is a lighthouse that cointains a rock-person like me but that unlike me is corrupted, somehow. Not only that, her house has a plataform that interacts with my magical rock and a door leading to a bunch of souls just like Light. That sure is suspicious, is it not?

"Once the right time ends we should ask this angry lady alot of questions. Don't you agree, Light?"

I move towards the coffin and knock on it twice.

"You hear that, lady? I demand answers!"

Does she think that she can just live here, amongst all of this really important stuff and nobody will come check it out? And not only that, but also try to prevent other people from seeing that giant woman statue up close? Sour Cream and his friends were right in checking out this place without her permission! Who does she think she is?! The owner of this place? Well, she might be, but that does not give her the right to stop those who want to appreciate harmony and seek out the truth!

With a humph, I launch myself backwards into the couch and land with a soft thud, it dampening my fall.

Carrying Light around everywhere is not that tiring but it is cumbersome, and after my battle with her I deserve to relax a bit, right? Besides, I need to ask this lady questions soon anyway so I am in no rush. Anything to make me not have to face more corrupted rock-people for longer.

"You hold her for now." I tell the skinny pale statue as I put Light on her lap. However, instead of just staying on her lap, Light just goes through.

What?

I check and see that Light was now resting on the couch's surface and just plain ignoring skinny's existence. She went through her lap as if it was not there and left a blurry smear in her path.

I move my hand to touch skinny's shoulder and it goes right through. I can feel some sort of resistance, something between water and air. Along my hand's path the statue is deformed into a smear that stands still in the air without any form of support.

Is it suppose to do that? Did I just ruin it?

I hastily try to put the smear back in place but it does not work. The more I move it the more blurry it becomes.

Does it mean it cannot be fixed? No, no, I can fix it! I just have to be more careful! I'm going to mold this thing back into place neatly and no will notice a thing!

I try again to push the smear back into place by scooping as much of it as I can, but each scoop only moves a small part of it back and leaves blurry traces in the air. Nevertheless, I keep at it until her shoulder is back in place, kinda. If I squint my eyes really hard then it is nearly impossible to tell that Skinny's body is heavily distorted as if she was some 3D oil painting gone wrong! I could not even tell the difference, really!

I pick up Light and realize that skinny's legs are now separated by a big blurry smear where her thighs were supposed to be. Oh, I do not think I can fix that...

I grab Light and take her out of there, accidentally making things worse in the process. As I desperately try to get away from this mess that is totally not my fault I step on skinny's left foot, causing it to also become distorted.

I step away from the couch and the blurry mess that skinny now was. Wow, I really ruined that statue. That is just a statue, right? Of course it is! A weird non-material statue that this mean lady has. You know, I should not feel bad about destroying it. Don't I like destroying things? I should enjoy it! Yeah, I should not feel bad about destroying a statue belonging to some lady that Sour Cream and buddies told are mean. She probably deserved it!

"Yeah, it is not our fault, right? And if it is, it's just some statue!"

I move towards the kitchen area and set Light down on top of the counter, far away from any decorative item.

Okay, what should I do now? I will have to eventually check out the big fancy stone door in the cave portion in the house eventually as it most likely leads to the other disconnected souls. That is something I must investigate. I could just wait here to interrogate the lady on what she knows, or maybe I should just leave. She is not going to like me breaking her statue but if I leave she will not know it was me, right? I can always interrogate her later.

"Hmm..."

As I am thinking I cross into the other side of the counter and enter the kitchen area, staring at the various objects there. I wonder what they are all for, beyond making delicious food that is. I want those fries and pizzas Sour Cream and gang mentioned...

The sound of a door opening breaks me of my train of thought. I look at the front door and see a figure entering the house. She is short and chubby, had purple skin, purplish white long hair. She carries in her arms a multitude of ridiculous clothing items; a big outlandishly pink hat, a large comically fluffy scarf and glasses that had a fake nose and mustache attached to it, among other things. The fact she was able to carry all of that without letting it all fall was rather impressive.

"Hah, this never gets old!" she exclaimed.

She continue walking towards the house and turns towards the sofa. I do not think she noticed I am here.

Should I do something?

"Peaaarl~, you know what time it is- Wow, happend to you?" she says as she set her eyes upon the smeared skinny statue. "You're like a modernist painting."

Is she talking to the statue?

"This never happend before" purple shorty says out loud. She moves towards Peaaarl and touches her. Her hands do not go throug but istead touch the blurry smear as if it was a solid object. "Were you in the middle of being puffed during the time freeze? That looks cool, and gross." Puffed?

Skinny is not a statue, is she?

I did it again.

"Does Steven know about puffing?" skinny continue talking to herself, oblivious to me being here.

Why do I always meet people in situations like this?!

I... I have to do something!

Should I just run away? I do not want to be blamed for... that. But at the same time, I should try to introduce myself, right? She is the only other person I have seen walking about in the right time. Well, there is Yellowtail but he doesn't count. Still, after what I did to Peaaarl she might get angry at me. She might want to fight me. I already fought today!

The short purple lady continue trying to interact with the blur I created, using her hands to feel it. I wonder why her hand did not go through skinny like mine did.

I need to stop thinking and staring and actually do something! But what? I feel desperation to do something but I don't know what to do. Maybe she will be friendly?

Shorty continue to mess around with skinny until her eyes met mine and she stopped.

"Uh..." I guess the choice has been made for me. Panic combined with relief fills my soul. "My name is Plume of Dusk!" I tell her in the most polite and cheerful tone I can manage. I should try to be friendly and polite. "I came here with my friend!" I point towards Light. "Would you like to be my friend?"

I await with expectation for her response. There is a moment of silence between us as she seems to process my presence.

"Sure." she says.

"Oh, that's great!" I grin at that. "You are not planning on attacking me when we are shaking hands, right?"

"Uh... no, I don't think so." she says slowly, raising one of her eyebrows. That soon goes away as she relax her posture, giving an impression of nonchalant indifference "Besides, that would be too much effort."

"Amazing!" I exclaim and smile as I walk towards her. I then extend my hand.

She stares at it, then stares at the multitude of items she is carrying in her hands, then stares at my hand again. She unceremoniously drops it all on the floor and reaches out to hold me. A shiver goes through me.

She grabs my hand. Nothing bad happens afterwards.

"So, did you do this?" She points towards skinny.

"Oh, that, huh, hah ha, that, well..." I stall as I try to think of what to say. "Hypothetically speaking, if I did, would that be a bad thing that makes you attack me?" I look at skinny after saying this. She was still not what I would call an okay state of being for a person to be. "Is she going to be okay?"

"Eh. she is going to be fine, probably, don't worry about it. It's not like her Gem is cracked or anything."

"Oh! That is great to hear!" I did not hurt her! It was okay, I didn't hurt her like I did Light. It's fine. She is okay. I am okay.

We just stood there for a few moments, neither of us breaking the silence that formed. Am I suppose to say something?

"Wait, wait, wait!" She suddenly breaks the silence "How are yah walking around at this time of day? I thought I was the only person that could do that. I've been alone in this thing for, like, a decade!"

"Well, I thought I was the only person who could walk around during this time! Everyone else is a coffin! Or a statue! It is weird."

"Totally! It was creepy at first, but then I found out I could use it to do a bunch of stuff. It is like a extra hour of secret sleep." she tells me. I never really thought of it that way and I cannot help but smile at that. It is so nice to finally just talk normally to someone who went through something I went through! This went much better than what I was expecting!

"What's your name?" I ask her.

"Amethyst." she replies as she starts walking towards the counter that stood between us, stepping all over the stuff she just dropped on the floor. "What are you doing in our house?"

"Well, I sensed a bunch of corrupted souls kinda like Light here and I decided to investigate. Besides, it was a giant woman statue! It looked so cool I had to see up close!" I tell her. It is nice to share.

"Where are you from?" she stops walking and leans on the counter with her back turned towards me. She was holding something in front of her chest but I can hardly see her from where is standing. She is not tall.

"I'm from Yakushima Island, I guess. I was in this abandoned lab, it was dark and filled with dust and had these computers that I broke and it was in this forest near the ocean. It was in the right time but then the sky changed color, people stopped being coffins and then stuff happened and it was a real doozy." I start explaining. I was ready to elaborate more before she interrupted me.

"So you're not from Homeworld?"

That question caught me off guard. "Uh... yes? I am from Earth, which is my home world, I think? Is that what you mean?" What a weird question to ask. Where else would I be from? The Moon?

"Did you emerge recently?" she jumps on the counter and sits upon it.

"I emerged from my slumber in a hotel room. It was nice, or would have been nice if not for the flaming ball of fire in the sky."

"No, I mean, did yah wake up one of these days. Just *POP* right out of a wall?"

"Yes, I did!" It is clear that she knows something! Actually knows something unlike all the other people I have meet so far! Could she be the answer to my questions? The person that allows me to finally get a grasp at the mysteries that have surrounded me since I woke up in that dusty room? "What do you know about me? What am I? What is happening to the world? Why do I feel like there is something I must do?" I reach grab her and shake her. "PLEASE, ANSWER ME!" I plead in a very polite tone.

"Woah, calm down rookie." She pushes my hands off her. "You are a Gem! You're a magical gemstone with a fake body! As for what's happening to the world, I dunno. It just happens."

I stare at her, expecting her to add something after. She does not.

"What?" I mutter. "I ALREADY KNEW THAT!" Well, I didn't knew that the name of what I am is Gem, but everything else was stuff I found out myself!

"Geez, are you okay?" she asks in a tone that is different from before. A tone of worry that contrasted with her calm demeanor from before.

"I..." that question took me off guard. What does it even mean to be 'okay'? "Within these three days since I woke up alone in a dark dusty lab, I have been stabbed, shot at and attacked with floating furniture. About half of everyone I have met trying to attack on sight. And not only that, but I wandered around with no idea of what's going on with me of with this crazy world that makes no sense. So I would not say I am 'okay', no!"

"Hey, calm down." She puts one of her hands on my shoulder. "I know it can be difficult to wake up alone like that, but you need to de-stress, rookie. I dunno about the weird horror movie vibe that is going on, but me and those two know alot about what you are going through and what you are. So how about we wait from them to stop being decoration and meanwhile just chill?"

I don't need to chill, I need answers! is what I was about to say but I stop myself. Maybe, just maybe, she is right. The way I talked with her, it was not very polite, was it? I am too much on edge for me to properly interrogate her on what she knows.

"I am sorry for my outburst." I apologize to her in an actual polite manner. "You are right, I do need to chill. Do you know of any disposable computers or fishing magazines nearby."

"I dunno about fishing magazines, but I do have a bunch of awesome junk in my room." she told me as she jumps out of the counter and starts heading outside. "Normally I just take the door but it doesn't work during creepy hour vibes."

"So the big mysterious stone door leads to your room filled with junk?" I have to admit, that is underwhelming.

"Yup, but only sometimes."

She then just leaves the house. Was I suppose to follow her? I guess so.

I grab Light and follow her outside. Once upon the porch we go down the stairs towards firm ground. I feel the sand upon my feet.

I turn around and see Amethyst crawling under the floorboards of the house. and I think that it seems like a very dirty place to be. Touching the ground with my feet is fine, crawling starts to get a bit too much for me. I still remember that muddy hole in the ground I feel into. Yuck!

I was about to comment on her unbecoming actions when she moved a big rock from it's resting place and thus revealing a small tunnel hidden beneath. She then procceds to just jump inside. Like, who does that?! That hole is barely big enough for her to fit into! I know I left a hole but I never entered into one! Wait, there was that one time I explored that other wall hole in the abandoned lab, but still!

Her head pops out of the hole she just entered in. "C'mon, follow me." she says, and just like that she is gone. Oh, nevermind, she's back. "And don't forget to place the rock back in place. Pearl would get so annoying if she found out I made another entrance to the temple." And she's gone again.

I look towards the hole once again. It seems to lead further into the ciff, towards the corrupted souls. Would it really wise to follow her? I know she acted nice at first, but a part of me thinks that she might betray me later. How do I know she is not the one responsible for the corruption of those souls? She is the only other person walking around at this time so the fact she is not a coffin or statue is already kinda suspicious. But maybe she is actually trying to be helpful, like Souji was? He was very suspicious at first, too.

"What do you think, Light?"

She does not answer, but talking to her does remind me of my duty towards her and the people like her trapped down there.

I nod and crawly under the floorboards to reach the hole. I hold tight to Light and go inside head first.

The hole is more like a tunnel. I slide through it, going deeper and deeper underground until the tunnel starts curving to be horizontal istead of vertical. It carries me forward until I find myself in a large spacious cavern. There is nothing holding my weight down as I leave a hole in the wall at fast speeds, being launched across the air by my momentum. For a brief moment I see a brilliant collection of huge cristals in the ceiling between my white hair strands. I brace for impact.

Instead of the hard ground, I land in something soft that bounces me forwards. I then land is another soft that completely negates the impact of my fall.

I turn around in the fluffy surface and look at the ceiling once more. The brilliant crystals are still there, shining their light into the surrounding area in a most pretty hue of colors.

I get up and balance myself on the unstable surface I am in. It is a pile of mattresses. Behind me there is another, bigger pile of mattresses, strategically place to cushion the fall of anyone who slides down through that tunnel. Like me!

Around me is what I can best describe as a total mess. There are drawers, boxes, chests, tires, pots, a pile of gold coins, a fridge, a dog house, a safe, a palm tree, a telephone pole! She really wasn't kidding when she said she had alot of awesome junk! There is piles of it everyone!

A small red river crosses the middle of the cave. It is oddly calm and silent despite originating from a waterfall in the back of the cave.

"Welcome to my place!" I hear her voice besides me.

"It's pretty amazing! I love it!"

"Oh, gee, rookie, thanks." She acts nonchalant about it but I could she is somewhat flustered. "Nobody ever said that about my room before."

I cannot help but smile at that.

"So, rookie." She says as she jumps onto one of the mattresses with a humph, as if that took so much effort. "What'cha wanna do?"

"Hmm." I want to look up those souls that are here I do not say. I want to trust Amethyst, there is just something warming about her. But still, why would someone have so many corrupt souls in their underground cave? Something deep in my mind just could not trust her despite my desire to be her friend. But she seems genuine...

I look to the side, upon a pile of broken televisions.

"Are you found of those TVs?" I ask her.

"I guess." She replies.

"Can I punch them?"

"Why just punch them-" she says as she gets up from her laying position. Her body glows purple. I can only stare at her as her body transform into a purple blobby mass that reminds me of my Kouha energy, except purple. The mass reshaped itself from Amethyst's shape into something bigger. Bigger torso, bigger arms, bigger everything. Soon, the flowing energy consolidated once again and revealed the image of a large muscled haired purple person with a mask and way too little clothes for my liking. "-when you can body slam them?"

She jumps from the pile she lied upon and flies across the sky towards the poor little pile of TVs, whom were unaware of the unfortunate fate that would in a few moments befell upon them.

CRASH!!!

It was glorious. Simply glorious. The pile of electronics stood no chance upon Amethyst's(?) onslaught. Bits of metal and glass flew in every direction, reminiscing of a moving fractal of crystal lights spreading upon it's junkish surroundings. TVs from the pile are dislodged from their place and descend, crashing into other TVs in a cascading effect that results in a a very loud sequence of crashing sounds.

Through it all, Amethyst seemed to not be bothered, in fact she was rather happy and energetic in a way she has not been so far. This display of physical strength must clearly be something she enjoys, which is great! A fellow enjoyer of electronic destruction!

"Ha-ha!" is her only reaction to the mass destruction she caused.

I run towards her and kick one of the broken TVs in the ground. It flies ungracefully in an arch towards the river, landing with a spectacular splash.

"Yeah!" How I missed this! It has been so long since I last did something like that! To feel the power of my body as a complex mechanism is broken under my might. As I impose my intent upon this world through a show of will made manifest through broken machinery! I can feel my worries leaving me. Not completely, they're still there, but hidden behind the joy of being free to commit wanton destruction.

Maybe Amethyst was right and I just needed to chill.

"How did you do that? Become like that?" I ask her.

"Just shapeshifting." she simply replies. "Check it out!"

Her large muscular body shifts once again, the purple energy taking the shape of a... seal, I think they are called? She jumps on top of the pile while barking. More energy and new shape. This time a fluffy cat. She jumps using her hing legs and lands on all four feet safely on the ground. She then shifts once again, her body going back to it's original short and chubby shape. "Amazing, right?"

"Yeah..." It is impressive, I can't deny. But there is also something... disturbing about it.

"You're a gem. You can do stuff like this too. Try it, rookie."

"Maybe later..."

She didn't seem to like my response as her carefree pose didn't seem so carefree anymore.

"Look, rookie." she says. "You're not alone with this, I'll be there to show you the ropes. Me, Pearl and Garnet can teach you all about being a gem. You don't have to be confused and learn about all that stuff alone..." she averted her gaze near the end.

We stand still for a few moments, just the three of us.

"So!" she says, her energy and carefree attitude finding themselves a way back to her. "Don't be scared, you can shapeshift just fine, it's easy." She lightly punches my shoulder in what I assume was meant to be a supportive gesture. "You just gotta do it, and it happens!"

"I'll, uh..." I really don't wanna do it. I remember when I was in that foggy headspace after meanie... well after that and how I felt my body was not solid, and how the thought of shaping it disturbed me. "I'll do it later, maybe?"

"Fine, if that's what you want. I'm not forcing you or anything." she said, holding no resentment in her voice.

An awkward silence hung uncomfortably in the air. I shift in place, awaiting for her to say something.

"Wanna smash more TVs?"

"Yes!"

We continued to transform that pile of abandoned electronics into an unrecognizable pile of shattered glass and metal scrap. I settled Light into a comfortable position on top of the mattresses so she could better witness our glorious rampage.

It was pretty great.

But whenever I turned to glimpse at Lighthouse, I was reminded of what I sensed hiding underneath this cliff, within these very caves.


	9. Bubbled Light

The interior of a TV is somewhat interesting. It is filled with a bunch of cables that connect to a bunch of stuff I have no idea what it is. How does it work, exactly? A part of my mind tells me this object meant to provide audio-visual input to a viewer, primarily for entertainment. I never experienced such an event myself, of course. This knowledge is just something I have for some reason with no apparent source. I just know.

"Amethyst."

"Yeah?" she replies. She is lying on top of a bed made of crashed electronics. It looks very uncomfortable but she seems unbothered.

"Does any of these TVs work?"

"Should've asked that before we wrecked them." she says in an completely reasonable but also frustrating reply.

"It's just that I have never seen a working TV before." I mention.

"Eh, we have one back at the house. 'sides, stuff like that doesn't work at creepy hour."

"TVs do not work during the... creepy hour? It's not creepy at all! This is how the world should be!" I tell her the truth.

"Really?" She sounds incredulous. "I dunno about you, but the ocean of blood and coffins everywhere make everything look like the setting of a a cliche horror movie. Humans always think coffins are scary. Reminds them they're gonna die one day, I guess." She sighed. "That kinda sucks."

"Well, I am not talking about the coffins. I'm talking about everything else. The ocean being red does not mean it's blood, it just means it's made out of water! Because, you know, water is red! And the sky is green! It's the way the world is, but then it gets all wrong for most of the day."

"Why'cha think that?" She gets up and stares at me. "Why do you think this is how the Earth should be? It's new and weird. The Earth hasn't been like this for thousands of years. I'd know."

I open my mouth to reply, to explain to her why obviously that is not the case, but then I stop. Not out of hesitation, but because I could not find any good argument other than because it is.

I stare at the TV again. I just knew what it's purpose was eve though I never saw or heard of a television before today. I just knew it. Similar to how I know that the world should be like this. But where does that knowledge come from? If I cannot trust it, then what can I trust? Do I even know anything? Or...

I look at Amethyst again. How do I know she is telling the truth about this? My inherent knowledge never failed me before, but I know nothing about Amethyst. She is the unknown element! Untrustworthy! But what if she is really telling the truth? What if my inherent knowledge is not completely accurate? But if it isn't accurate, then what can I trust to know? How would I know what is true and what is merely what I think is true? How would I be able to tell anything?

I shake my head and stomp onto one of the broken TV sets, cracking it's form even further.

"Not done with destroying TVs yet?" Amethyst asks.

"Nope!"

"I am. Kinda got old after a while. And too much effort."

Blasphemy! Although, I suppose there is some sliver of truth behind it. Destroying the TVs through the same manner does get a bit stale after a while. Of course, this excuse does not apply to Amethyst as she's got that weird transformation thing going on. I'm not going to point that out, however. The less she does that, the better.

I do have another way to continue my rampage. My energy reserves did not fully recover from my fight with Light, but who cares? I still have to practice Kouha more, anyway.

I dig through the pile, looking for a relatively intact TV. I fish it out of the scrap and position it on the ground.

"You might have that transformation thing, but I also have something interesting." I tell Amethyst. "I call it Kouha. The name just came to me."

"Oh?"

"Check it out!"

Once again, I feel the energy of my being obey my will as it gathers upon my hands in a brilliant flow of bright energy. Once again, the energy builds up in my hands. Once again, I make an elegant throwing motion towards my target in a practiced motion. The energy left my hand and impacted the TV. It is thrown back by the impact force of the energy of light and shatter in the process.

I look towards Amethyst.

"Cool, rookie. How did you do that?"

"I just gathered all the energy from my rock into my hands and threw it! I just did it! I am amazing at it, I know. I practiced all morning!"

"Nice. That energy must be your thing."

"My thing?" I ask her.

"Yeah. All gems have their own thing." she explained. "Pearl has her holograms and stuff, Garnet can see the future, Rose had her healing tears and also a bunch of other stuff and I'm pretty amazing at transforming. It's mah thing, baby!"

"But you said all gems can transform?"

"Yeah, but I'm the best!"

She seems quite proud of herself at that.

Silence returned between us, so I prepared another Kouha to launch towards the scrap pile. As I gathered the energy I found my gaze going towards Lighthouse, still sitting comfortably in her comfy pile.

"I have another thing, too. I can see souls when I close my eyes. They are like lights in an never-ending sea and-"

Everything shifts. The crystals no longer reflect a red light and the soft sound of moving water can be heard in the once silent cavern. Once again the world goes back to being weird and wrong.

"Creepy time is over." Amethyst says.

I release the energy in my hands, seeing the pretty lines of liquid floating light emit a CRASH sound from the TV for the last time, for now.

"So." I continue where I left off. "I can see souls, and stuff."

I look towards Amethyst, still lying down.

"Shouldn't we go to Pearl, considering what I, uh, did to her during this hour that passed? Accidentally!"

"Yeah, we probably should." Amethyst says as she gets up and starts walking. "Steven is there too."

Steven? I remember her mentioning that name before. Is that the person that was inside the coffin?

I grab Lighthouse and follow purple shortie into a big stone door that I never realized was there. It was very similar to the one in the house. As Amethyst got close to it, one of the five rocks inside the star symbol in the door glowed purple. Shortly after the door opened, revealing the house we were in earlier.

"Wait, what?" I say towards the absurdity ahead of me. "How are we here? We went down the cave pretty far but then we didn't even change elevation, what? How-" I stop when I notice a crying kid.

The tall one with big square hair (Garnet, was it?) was crouched down next to the sobbing child.

"Pearl?" the kid said amidst his sobs. He is standing on his knees in front of the couch and holding the rock that used to be in Pearl's forehead within his hands. "Pearl!"

"Steven!" Amethyst shouts with worry, running towards and standing besides him. She puts one hand on Steven's shoulder in a supporting gesture.

"I-I was just... we were just talking and then she just... she just..." He could barely talk straight.

Amethyst talks to him in a soft voice. "Steven, it's okay. Pearl's gonna be just fine."

"Wh-What do you mean?"

The tall one started talking. "Sometimes, if our bodies are badly damaged, we release our physical forms and retreat to our gems to regenerate."

"But she was just fine a moment ago."

Garnet stares at Amethyst. Her expression is neutral, yet it still somehow gave an intimidating aura. She did not need to say anything for me to guess what she meant.

"Hey! Don't look at me, I didn't do this! I like pranking Pearl, sure, but I would never poof her! On purpose!" Amethyst defended herself.

She is right, of course. It was not her who did it. It was me.

I hug Light more tightly.

"I-I did it." I confess to her. "It was an accident! I thought she was a statue but it was more like a messy hologram and thenIwantedtositonthecouchandIputLightonherlapbutthenshewentthroughandItriedtofixitbutonlymadeitworseand-"

"Hey, rookie, it's okay. You didn't mean it. Right, Garnet?"

"Yes." she simply said. Somehow that simple single syllable made her less threatening.

"So she is going to be okay?"

I release a breath I did not even realize I was holding. So she is also okay with me, that's good. Things are going good, no need to worry.

"So how long will it take for her to regenerate... 5 minutes, 10 minutes?"

"Eh, something like that."

The kid is no longer crying, trusting his comrades fully in knowledge that Pearl is going to be just fine. The redness in his eyes is still visible but it has been replaced with a face of wonder and starry eyes. Literal starry eyes, which feels weird but I suppose I have no right to comment on that considering how I look.

"Who are you?" The cheer in his voice is unmistakable. "Why did you guys never told me there is another gem?!"

"Because I am also meeting her for the first time." Garnet said.

"Yeah, Steven. Rookie here is a brand new member of our gang."

"Wait." I interrupt her. "I am? I never agreed to anything like that! I just wanted to find out about more stuff!"

"How else would you learn more about being a gem, rookie? Welcome to the Crystal Gems! We can keep her, right Garnet?"

Uh, this is kinda of sudden.

"This is sudden." Garnet says. Hey, I thought that too! "But yes. Afterall, we kept you Amethyst." A small smile finally broke Garnet's neutral face. Amethyst rolled her eyes

"But, what is the Crystal Gems?"

"We are magical warriors that protect humanity! We are the Crystal Gems!" Steven shouted at me. He struck a pose, his arms on his hips, his back straight, his chin held high, a beaming smile at his face and joy in his eyes and soul. "Garnet, Amethyst and Pearl! And Steven! Now including: Rookie!"

"My name isn't rookie, it's Plume of Dusk!"

"Now including Plume of Dusk." he quickly corrects himself.

I stared at the little grouping in front of me. Steven is waiting for my response, Amethyst is smiling and Garnet and staring at me, or I assume that is the case. Hard to know when she is wearing sunglasses and holds such a deadpan face.

Still, this is too sudden. Should I really join these Crystal Gems? I only briefly know one of them and know nothing of the others. But they also are my best bet to find out more about, well, everything. This is not an opportunity I can pass up.

Besides, it would be nice to have more people to help me and talk to. That's a nice thing to have, especially with how crazy everything is.

"Hey, rookie, no need to decide now. No pressure."

"Oh, oh, we have to show her around! There's the temple and the house, but I guess you already saw that. Maybe I can show you around Beach City! I know all the cool places! Not to brag, but you could call me an expert." Steven seemed very eager. I almost told him that Sour Cream already showed me around, but maybe I shouldn't. He wants to help me even though I hurt his friend. I do not want to make him feel bad by refusing his offer.

His friendly and cheerful attitude is just so... cute!

Onion was also cute. Are all children cute? I hope so!

"Steven." Garnet called out to him and he turned to look at her. "You have a package waiting for you. Why don't you wait out front?"

"Oh, right, the backpack!" He runs out of the house towards the porch and close the door behind him. He then comes back, picks up Pearl's rock with one hand and one of the cushions on the sofa with another, heads towards the counter, sets the cushion on it, carefully sets Pearl's rock on top of it, then proceeds to leave the house and close the door behind him.

Cute indeed.

"Who is that gem in your arms?" Garnet asks me.

Oh, right. This. I was kinda expecting that I would have to talk about this eventually.

"She is my friend, Lighthouse. Or Light for short." I look towards her and close my eyes. She is still unconscious, but when I focus I can still feel the corruption that plagues her. She cannot escape it. "She is suffering. There is something wrong with her, but I do not know what. She is corrupted."

I breathe in, then breathe out.

"I meet her very recently, and she actually attacked me, but she did so out of fear. I am trying to find a way to help her. I don't really know how. That won't stop me, though! I made a promise!"

I lift my head. Amethyst had a somber look in her face for once. Garnet's face remained as neutral as ever, not revealing what she was feeling.

"Follow me." Garnet told me. She then started heading towards the big stone door. We follow her.

Two of the stones in the door shine and it opens revealing... not Amethyst's room? Okay, there is definatly something weird with this door.

Beyond it there is another cavern, sort of. It is smaller than Amethyt's room and had a corridor shape. The ground is paved with stone bricks istead of being bare stone. Small glowing crystals of various shapes and sizes were half-buried in the walls, illuminating the path in a vast array of lights. The three of us continue until we reach a large chamber shaped like a semi-circle. In the middle of the chamber there is a small brick pond filled with a completely opaque shining yellow liquid. That liquid flowed in small ditches that formed circle-like patterns across the floor, shining the entire room in an eerie orange tint. That is not the most eerie thing in the room, though.

I look up towards the dome in the ceiling. There are just so many of them...

The corrupted souls I detected earlier. This is where they are.

There are many other gems. They are without a body, existing only inside their own rock. Each one was located within a transparent purple bubble.

I close my eyes and feel.

I knew they were here before, of course. But when I felt them before, they were far away. Their existence was a piece of knowledge to me. But now? Now I understood. They were all corrupted like Light, all wrong. In pain. Suffering. There is so much of it, so much wrong. None of them are conscious and the vast majority of them are not connected to the sea of lights, yet their corruption within them is still so notable.

What caused this? What awful thing made Light and all these other people like this? Why? Why cause so much wrongness and pain?

This is not okay. Not okay at all. It's too much.

My knees hit the ground. The fact I am no longer standing only registers to me after I am already on my knees. I almost drop Light but I gather myself quickly enough to hold onto her.

"Rookie, are you okay?"

I open my eyes and look at Amethyst. She is worried.

"There is just so many of them. I can feel them all."

"You can see them in a way we cannot." Garnet says.

I look at her, then nod. It was my thing.

"Like a sea of light, except they are so alone and deformed. They're not together like other lights, and they are wrong."

So alone and scared, like I was.

"What..." I start but then I waver. I continue regardless. "What caused this?"

"The diamonds." Garnet replied.

I have a feeling she is not merely referring to simple precious stones. I wait for her to continue.

"A long time ago, one of the diamonds came to Earth with the intent of colonizing it." Garnet started talking. "Of stripping this planet of all it's natural beauty without a care for all the creatures that lived here, including humanity. Not all gems wanted that, so they rebelled. They rebelled against what was being done to Earth and to the roles they had been assigned in the tyrannical rule of the diamonds. The rebels called themselves the Crystal Gems and devoted themselves to protecting life on Earth and the freedom to be themselves."

Garnet puts a hand on my shoulder. Amethyst walks away. I continue to listen.

"The war lasted for a long time but under the leadership of Rose Quartz they persevered. One day, Rose killed Pink Diamond, the diamond in charge of Earth, to free us once and for all. The other diamonds retaliated by releasing a terrible energy that corrupted nearly all gems on Earth, rebels and homeworld gems alike. Only Rose, Pearl and I survived."

"That is what happened to them? To Light."

"Yes." Garnet answers. "Since then we fight the corrupted gems and bring them here so we can one day help them."

So they want to help people like Light, like meanie. So they can be normal and not like this. That sounds... good.

"The diamonds. Are they still around?" I ask.

"No. They have not been on Earth for millennia."

"They're the jerks responsible for creating the kindergartens where we came from." Amethyst entered the conversation. She still had that carefree pose of hers, but I could sense that it is not genuine

"Kindergarten?" I ask.

"Yeah. That chasm filled with holes where we came from, you know. The place where we popped right out of a wall."

Amethyst continue to be I came from a wall, alright, but I do not remember anything about a chasm.

"I don't think I came from a kindergarten. I came out of a wall but it was inside a laboratory, not a chasm." That piqued their interest. Both of them were looking at me with attention. "It was dark, dusty and abandoned. I remember seeing a photograph of a bunch of people in white coats."

"People?" Amethyst asked? "Do you mean gems or humans?"

"Humans." I remember their smiles in that photograph. They seemed happy.

"That is worrying. Humans never got involved with gem technology on this level before."

"Wait, so you saying that Plume of Dusk here was created by humans and not by homeworld gems?"

My mind goes back to my conversations with Souji back in Yakushima Island. He said the Kirijo Group used to have a test site on the island before they abandoned. He must have been referring to the buildings of where I came from. The dusty old lab and that other tall place in the woods I never went to.

"The Kirijo Group."

"Huh?"

"I think they were the ones who made me. They are called the Kirijo Group. They are a corporation in Japan, or so I heard."

There was silence after that.

"If I may?" I turn to see Garnet trying to reach out for Light.

I nod and she takes her from my hands. With a simple motion of her hands, a purple bubble surrounds Light. Garnet the gentrly pushes Light upwards, where she floats until finding a spot to stand still. It joins it's brethren in rest, waiting to be saved one day.

Once that is done Garnet starts walking towards the exit.

"Where yah going?"

"I am going to take the Moon Goddess Statue towards the Lunar Sea Spire."

"I thought we were gonna do together with Steven. Supposed to be his first mission."

"Not today."

She leaves.

I breathe in, then breathe out.

"C'mon rookie, let's leave this place."

I look at Light once again, then get up from my knees and follow Amethyst towards the exit.

I could use some time resting right about now.


End file.
